Cambiamenti semantici palesi e nascosti nel lessico verbale italiano: le transizioni di possesso

Abstract

With reference to the semantic field of the possession transition of the object, the present paper is about the change of semantic competence in the Italian basic verbal lexicon (prendere to take' and togliere to take away') when compared with the uses of the verbs attested in a series of practical texts of Western Tuscany at the end of XIII century and early XIV century. In the article, the semantic analysis of the current verbal predicates, carried by means of the methodological instruments of the empirical theory of meaning (cf. Moneglia, 1987 and subsequent work) is proposed and for both the verbs a pragmatic variation of use (primary variation), typical of general verbs is evidenced. Starting from such results, it is demonstrated that the semantic change of the predicate torre take away', evident because of the incompatibility of its uses with the nowadays competence, was accompanied by a parallel, meaningful hidden change in the meaning of prendere. The occurrences of prendere in the contextual uses in old texts are compatible with the competence, but the predicate variation is much more reduced with respect to the current one either in the texts considered and, more generally, in the literal texts of the origins. In this paper the proposal is that prendere was earlier an action predicate (with a value similar to acchiappare to catch'), not a general predicate. Hypotheses on the typology of the semantic changes occurred in both the predicates are advanced.