Intensificatori e soggettificazione in latino: sulla grammaticalizzazione di maxime

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the grammaticalization path of the intensifying adverb maxime in Early Latin, within the perspective of the so-called ‘subjectification’ theory. Despite the difficulty of drawing discrete boundaries within the multifunctional category of adverbs, the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic analysis of maxime across different contexts of use allows us to identify at least three main functions of this adverb in early Latin texts, mostly in the Roman comedy of Plautus and Terence. In particular, adopting the perspective of the Functional Discourse Grammar, it is shown that maxime is used as (i) degree adverb, which modifies a large range of elements acting at the word or phrase level, by adding intensification and/or emphasis, (ii) modal adverb, which takes its scope over the whole proposition, expressing the speaker’s attitude or commitment toward the content of his/her utterance, (iii) discourse marker, which develops interactional and textual functions at the pragmatic level of discourse (‘intersubjectification’), by modifying the illocutionary force of the clause or marking an emphatic response in the immediate context of questions and directives.