Abstract

Abstract: The Latin verbal ending -at, found in etymons of forms of the 3rd person present indicative (1st conjugation), present subjunctive (2nd and 3rd conjugations), imperfect indicative and conditional (all conjugations), has generally become -a (cantat " canta) in Catalan. However, variant -e, now found in Northwestern Catalan and in Northern Valencian, is already documented in the first written evidence from the old counties of Urgell and Pallars (11th century). This divergence has received a phonological explanation, based on the assumption that in early Western Catalan final -t would have been lost late, which would have allowed the closure of the posttonic a (-at " -et " -e). Basing our argument on the principles of Natural Morphology, an alternative hypothesis is put forward in this paper, i.e. the emergence and expansion of variant -e can be attributed to morphological factors such as the rejection of syncretism. The data collected from CICA (Computerised Corpus of Old Catalan) seem consistent with this hypothesis, although the paucity of early texts advises us to be cautious in our conclusions. Key words: syncretism, linguistic change, Natural Morphology, verbal inflection, Old Catalan, Northwestern Catalan.

Abstract

In this paper, we advocate overcoming the dichotomies that fragment the study of language facts (synchrony vs. diachrony, linguistics vs. sociolinguistics, internal history vs. external history), in favor of an approach that integrates the maximum number of possible explanatory factors. A suitable field for this confluence is the analysis of ongoing language changes, which are those that take place in real time in front of the eyes of the researcher, who can thus benefit from the proximity to the object of study and from the accessibility to the multiple factors that condition its evolution, provided that he is capable of not getting overly involved. The analysis of the transformations observed in Northwestern Catalan since the resumption of the standardization process in Catalonia shows how we can increase the degree of understanding of linguistic changes if we are attentive to the interactions that occur between the socially established uses, the forms subjected to the constraints of the system, and the perceptions that end up forming the linguistic awareness of speakers understood as individuals and as a social body.