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Re-Enforcement of Negation in Early Italian
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
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.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1938
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.