Abstract
This article focuses on the Italian discourse marker niente. Drawing on conversation analytic principles, it first discusses current uses in naturally occurring interaction. In present-day conversational Italian, «niente» is commonly used as a response to ‘sorry’ (mi) scusi, scusa(mi) and ‘thank you’ grazie, but also as a resource that allows speakers to organize their talk, i.e. to manage the topical and sequential unfolding of conversation. While these uses have traditionally been described as recent developments, in the second part of the article evidence is provided for similar uses in literary works of the 18th century. The subsequent analysis focuses on the process of grammaticalization that led from «niente» ‘nothing’ to its use as a discourse marker, which originated in spontaneous interaction.
Published Version
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