Latin quidem: the interplay with negation and contrast in semantic change
Résumé
We study an instance of semantic change observed with the Latin particle quidem, which in essence is a common-ground managing particle indicating that a given piece of information is presupposed (approximate English translations in- clude ‘indeed’, ‘certainly’, ‘in fact’ and ‘admittedly’). On the basis of corpus work on Early and Classical Latin texts, we show that the development of a use of qui- dem in combination with negation goes hand-in-hand with the development of a use in (counterexpectational) adversative contexts. We propose that the semantic- pragmatic link between the two innovative uses is the rhetorical over-use of the particle, which develops in two different ways. In the case of the complex negative particle ne...quidem, we propose that over-use detaches the particle from its basic common-ground managing function and turns it into a focus particle. In the case of the employ in adversative contexts, we propose that the same effect of over-use leads to the conventionalization of more local anaphoric-cataphoric relations.