Project description "The Second Way"

Wider research context

The project “The Second Way: Prepositional Adverbials in Primary Dialects of Romance” is a follow-up project of the previous project “The Third Way: Prepositional Adverbials from Latin to Romance”. The Third Way project considers prepositional adverbials (Type C), e.g., Fr. à la dure, Sp. a la ligera (cf. Engl. in short), as a relevant third way of forming adverbials aside adverbial adjectives, e.g., Fr. aller direct, Sp. hablar claro (Type A) (cf. Engl. to speak clear) and derived adverbs in -mente, e.g., Fr. directement, Sp. tranquilamente (Type B) (cf. Engl. to speak clearly). The expansion of Type C has been fostered by general analyticizing tendencies in the passage from Latin to Romance. While Type B has been imposed by standardization (except Romanian), this type generally lacks in primary dialects of Romance. Primary dialects thus continue the Indo-European tradition of using adjectives for adverbial functions (Type A), extending it to Type C in the Latin-Romance transition. Consequently, Type C must be considered the third but the second way of forming adverbials in primary dialects. The Third Way project has provided overwhelming evidence for the prominence of Type C in primary dialects.

Hypothesis

According to our hypothesis, Type C extends the direct modification of Type A by adding circumstantial semantic-pragmatic features, e.g., the attitude of the speaker in Fr. à la légère. This matches Coseriu’s description of the Latin-Romance analyticization process as a development of indirect relationships. The objective is to analyse the functional differentiation of Type A and Type C.

Approach

The Second Way project investigates 7 primary dialects located in 5 major domains: Gallo-Romance (Franco-Provençal: Evolène), Italo-Romance (Southern Italian varieties: Montellese and Verbicarese), Ibero-Romance (Mirandese: Miranda do Douro, Asturian: Teverga), Daco-Romance (Banaţean:  Sarmizegetusa, Crişean: Măguri-Răcătău). The project applies the field investigation method developed by the Third Way project, including now Type A and functional differentiation. The method is based on questionnaires (10 interviews per variety with two informants each).

Innovation

The project is innovative for both the investigation of Type C, which is neglected in manuals and grammars, and the realization of a pan-Romance comparative survey in the field. The results will also be used for diachronic reconstruction.