Grammaticalization ABLATIVE>ALLATIVE in Italian dialects

[Wolfgang Schulze]

Dear Giorgio,
are you sure that the two 'da's' have the same etymological background? 
To my knowledge, the ABL da stems from 'de ab' (Latin ABL), whereas the 
ALL da stems from 'de ad' (Latin ALL). Hence, we would not have to deal 
with the grammaticalization path ABL>ALL, but with a merger of two 
originally distinct forms (and functions) into one form. The 
distribution de + a(d) > da with animate objectives and solely a(d) with 
inanimates seems rather typical (if you take into account the use of 
ABL>PART cases to indicate partial affection of animate 'patients'  (see 
the frequent path [ABL>]PART/GEN to indicate an animate Spilt).
Best wishes,
Wolfgang 

Giorgio Iemmolo schrieb:

> Dear linguists,
>
> I write you again about Gallosiculo dialects. In these dialects and in 
> Central Italian Dialect (Umbria), I found the preposition "da",  an 
> ablative marker (separation, motion from) to mark datives and human 
> direct object . In Italian, this preposition is also used as an 
> allative with human nouns and animate definite nouns, like :"Vado da 
> Maria" "I go to Mary"  but, with inanimate nouns, the allative 
> preposition "a" is used: "Vado a casa" "I go home" 
>                                        
> I think that in these dialects, the pathway of grammaticalization of 
> preposition "da" could be: ABLATIVE>ALLATIVE>INDIRECT OBJECT 
> (animate)>DIRECT OBJECT (human). I have many examples of allative 
> preposition used to mark indirect object/differential object marking.
> Instead, I don't find any example of use of ablative adpositions with 
> allative-sense with animate nouns, as "da" in Italian.
> Does anyone knows a language that use an ablative adposition to 
> express allative with animate nouns? (it could be very good to find a 
> similar example of grammaticalization as above mentioned!)
>
> I will appreciate any suggestion.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Giorgio
>
>  
>

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Prof. Dr. Wolfgang 
Schulze                                                                    

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