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Re-Enforcement of Negation in Early Italian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Charles Barrett Brown
Charles Barrett Brown*
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
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Extract

Re-enforcement of negation by the application of words or phrases denoting small value or amount was not unknown in Latin, and was a practice that naturally carried over into the Romance languages. In referring to terms thus employed in Romania, grammarians do not always quote sources or cite the earliest text in which a term appears; to remedy this deficiency for early Italian, where necessary and possible, is the purpose of the present discussion, as well as to list additional terms that previous investigators have overlooked.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , June 1938, pp. 333 - 338
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1938

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References

1 Fr. Diez, Gramm, der roman. Spr., 3. Aufl. (Bonn: Weber, 1872), iii, 429–432, lists the following terms:

as granum tritici naucum pilus
cicer gutta nihil pluma
ciccus hetta nihilum teruncius
digitus hilum nux titivillitium
dupondius libella argenti pensum triobolum
floccus mica pes (cf. Fr. pas) unguis

A. Schweighäuser adds numus: “De la negation dans les langues romanes,” Bibl. de l'École des Chartes (1852), iii, 206.

2 Loc. cit.

3 For nulla, the earliest texts Diez mentions are the Orlando furioso and the Gerusalemme; for pelo, the earliest is Orl.fur. H. Vockeradt, however, asserts that the latter term was used “bei den Alten”: Gramm, der ital. Spr. (Berlin: Weidmannsche, 1878), p. 394.

4 Ed. L. Valeriani (Firenze, 1816), 2 vols. An earlier example appears in i, 47.

5 Crestomazia ital. dei primi sec. (Città di Castello: Lapi, 1912). Cf. punto di aguglia, infra.

6 Fazio degli Uberti, ed. V. Monti (Milano: Silvestri, 1826).

7 Ed. G. Bertacchi (Milano: Sonzogno, 1906).

8 Ed. F. Pellegrini (Bologna: Romagnuoli dall'Acqua, 1901), Vol. I.

9 Manuale della lett. del primo sec. della lingua ital. (Firenze: Magheri, 1837–39), 3 vols.

10 Diez quotes only gran di moco; the above-mentioned examples are earlier.

11 Ed. P. Savj-Lopez (Strasburgo: Heitz, s.d.).

12 Bonvesin della Riva, ed. V. de Bartholomaeis (Roma: Soc. fil. rom., 1901).

13 Le laude, ed. G. Ferri (Bari: Laterza, 1915).

14 In Sonetti burleschi e realistici del primi due sec., ed. A. F. Massèra (Bari: Laterza, 1920), 2 vols.

15 Idem.

16 Idem.

17 Ed. E. C. (Lanciano: Carabba, 1933).

18 Op. cit., pp. 292, 350, 394.

19 The only meanings Diez, op. cit., 424, gives for this term are non valde and hand diu; here it is equivalent to punto.

20 Frequent in Savonarola.

21 Testi fiorentini del dugento e dei primi del trecento (Firenze: Sansoni, 1926).

22 Ed. L. Banchi (Bologna: Romagnoli, 1863).

23 Die Ausdrucksweise der übertriebenen Verkleinerung im altfr. Karlsepos (Ausgaben u. Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der rom. Phil, veröffenlicht v. E. Stengel, Marburg [1882], lxxxii, passim)

24 Sonetti burleschi, i, 240.

25 Idem, ii, 29. 26 Idem, ii, 30.

27 Idem, ii, 53.

28 Tractato dei mesi, 70b, ed. E. Lidforss (Bologna: Romagnuoli, 1872).

29 Sonetti burleschi, i, 96. Cf. covone di paglia, fourteenth century (Petrocchi).

30 Grammaire des langues romanes (New York: Stechert, 1923), iii, 775.

31 “The figurative negative in Romance literatures,” MLN, xxiii, 61–63.

32 Rambaldo di Vaqueiras.

33 Ed. A. F. Massèra (Bari: Laterza, 1927), 2 vols.

34 2a ed. (Milano: Silvestri, 1837), vii, 108c.

35 Son. burl., i, 189.

36 Idem, i, 42.

37 Idem, i, 41.

38 A. D'Ancona—O. Bacci, Manuale della lett. ital. (Fireznze: Barbèra, 1928), i, 634.

39 In F. L. Mannucci, L'Anonimo Genovese (Genova, 1904), p. 101.