French déjà, Piedmontese Regional Italian già: a case of contact-induced pragmaticalization

The aim of this paper is to explore a specific case of contact-induced pragmaticalization undergone by some adverbs meaning ‘already’ in Piedmontese Regional Italian, French, and some neighbouring varieties. This pragmaticalization process resulted in the development of a new, discourse-related function of the adverbs under scrutiny, which, in contemporary spoken varieties, can be used in interrogative contexts in order to ask for the repetition of information that the speaker knew, but cannot remember at the time of speaking due to a failure in recall.