Dall’anteposizione spazio-temporale al contrasto: lo sviluppo diacronico dei connettivi avversativi anziché e anzi

Although there are several works that have dealt with the analysis of the evolution of the markers anziche and anzi (Bazzanella 2003; Musi 2014; Sainz 2014; Visconti 2015, 2019, 2021), this study aims to integrate a quantitative analysis with the consolidation and enrichment of the qualitative aspects already explored. The analysis of the two markers will be carried out both from a synchronic perspective, aimed at presenting the uses of the two connectives in spoken Italian; and from a diachronic perspective, through which it is proposed to illustrate the main factors at play in the processes of change of the connectives anziche and anzi from a semantic-pragmatic perspective. These connectives are characterized by their original spatial (in front of), temporal (before) and comparative (in front of/in comparison to) value, from which they develop, on the one hand, the value of oppositive contrast and, on the other, the values of corrective-substitutive contrast and reformulation. For the diachronic analysis, a multiple-stage model is adopted, in order to highlight the main stages that characterized the change in the connectives anziche and anzi. For each stage identified, the semantic aspects of the two connectives ((in)compatibility with the original value and/or with the new value (Giacalone Ramat / Mauri 2012)) and the syntactic- distributional aspects that contributed to their reanalysis are taken into account. The data analyzed for this paper show how the original value of the connectives under examination, the context in which the connectives appear from time to time and the frequency of use with which the novel values are used in different types of context constitute the crucial factors for semantic change.