Meertaligheid en onderwijs van moderne talen in de 16de eeuw

Abstract

Abstract Multilingualism and modern language teaching in the 16th century: the interjection hola as a possible case of language contact in the Colloquia, et dictionariolumIn this paper, we explore the semantic-pragmatic functions of the interjection hola in the Dutch, French and Spanish versions of the Colloquia, et dictionariolum, printed in Antwerp, as a possible case of language contact. The Colloquia, et dictionariolum, first printed in the 16th century, are parallel language textbooks designed for acquiring basic skills in up to eight languages. The first edition of the Colloquia was bilingual Dutch-French; Spanish was among the first languages added to the textbook. At the core of the textbook are dialogues related to everyday situations, such as shopping at the market or participating in a family dinner. Although these dialogues are commonly regarded as early sources of spoken forms of European languages, they are in fact instances of conversational mimesis i.e. they are representations of spoken language, intended for didactic purposes and, most importantly, adapted and translated over time by various authors.In our case study, we analyse first (h)ola’s semantic-pragmatic function(s) from a contrastive perspective. Subsequently, we explore a possible case of semantic-pragmatic extension in Spanish due to language contact. Generally speaking, (h)ola can fulfil a requestive function in Dutch, French and Spanish (cf. typology by Poggi 2009), viz. it was used to attract someone’s attention, a function that can be attested for the three languages in the Colloquia. Moreover, the dialogues of the Colloquia provide an example for (h)ola in a requestive-cessative function, used to tell someone to stop or slow down. This function has been described for both Dutch and French hola (also in English and German) but has, up until now, not been attested for the Spanish counterpart. A first explorative analysis of hola in the 16th-century Spanish CORDE-corpus does not yield any cessative occurrences either. Consequently, the cessative function of Spanish hola in the Colloquia might be due to the possible interference from Dutch or French (or both). However, in order to provide a more conclusive answer, a detailed study of the semantic-pragmatic functions of hola in the Germanic and Romance languages involved will be necessary.