La riorganizzazione del sistema verbale nello Slavo del Molise. Su alcune forme di futuro

Antonietta Marra

2019-01-01

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Abstract

It is well known that the various forms of future tense are very changeable in many languages of the world. It is assumed that, for Indo-European languages this is due to the loss of an original synthetic form subsequently replaced by different structures aimed at expressing this temporal deixis. These structures often added modal values - originally conveyed by the auxiliary forms used for the construction of periphrasis - to the temporal reference. Therefore, it is probable that also the modal origin of these new temporal forms has determined their instability and continuous change. The present paper describes some forms of future tense in the Slavic of Molise (SLM), a Croatian minority language in contact with Romance varieties of Southern Italy. On the basis of the data collected in two SLM communities, the role of the Romance contact languages in the evolution of the different forms of future has been highlighted. Two forms of future tense that have a model in Italian and in the dialect variety of the region have been added to the periphrasis with the auxiliary 'want' brought from the Balkan area of origin: the periphrastic form with the auxiliary 'have’ / ‘have to' and the form of the present indicative. However, this system, is not stable: the change in the use of different linguistic varieties of the repertoire (both by communities and by single speakers) modified the functional distribution of the three forms of future tense. The aim of the present work is to describe the current conditions of use of the different forms of future tense and to provide an explanation to the process of change underway.