La rappresentazione linguistica della soggettività in latino volgare e tardo: lettere e dintorni

This work aims to offer a general overview of the linguistic means that can be considered subjectivity markers in Vulgar and Late Latin. These forms, of different morphosyntactic nature, acquire communicative value in the context of interaction and their pragmatic functions not infrequently also change the semantic content of the original items. Subjectivity is expressed by the speaker or writer as a non-propositional part of the discourse at different levels of intentionality, and is linked to oral discourse and to its representations. Therefore, this study relies on analysis of plays, reported dialogues, letters from the third century BC to the sixth century AD. Subjectivity markers are first classified into types on the basis of their semantic content and pragmatic function. These types realize three main macrofunctions, the first oriented to textual coherence and cohesion, to second to social cohesion and the third to personal stance of the speaker; the interface between semantics and pragmatics is the link between macro functions and types of subjectivity markers.