Abstract
The aim of the paper is to compare the class of auxiliary verbs in three Romance languages, French, Spanish and Italian, in the framework of grammaticalization theory. Grammaticalization is defined as the process by which lexical items are gradually converted into grammatical markers, i.e. a dynamic operation by which elements can move over time from one linguistic component to another (from the lexicon to the grammar and eventually, to the morphological component). Auxiliaries are defined both on a syntactic and a semantic basis : formally, they are verbs followed by a non finite verb form (only infinitives are considered here) and semantically, they express one of three notional concepts : time, aspect or modality. The major claim of the paper is that French is the most grammaticalized of the three languages, and Spanish the least. The empirical evidence that supports this hypothesis relates to three kinds of data : the number of verbs that can be analyzed as members of the category AUX, the selectional properties concerning the subject NP (± human NP) and the possible alternation of the infinitival complement with NP complements.
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