[Lingtyp] Truth markers

[Pier Marco Bertinetto]

There is more to say about Italian.
First, _ovvero_ can have two meanings: 'or' and 'i.e.'. Neither of them is
relevant to the initial query, if I understood it.
Second, the adjective _vero_ has devolped a phatic adverbial usage, again
of a double nature:
- as confirmation request at the end of a statement (_l'hai visto, vero?_
'you saw it, am I right?'); cf. the Spanish usage of _verdad_ 'truth'.
- as pure phatic element, often repeated, sometimes even excessively, by
some speakers; it is most likely used by some educated speakers and it is
perhaps old-fashoned nowadays (but this might be a mere impression of mine).
Best
Pier Marco


Il giorno gio 21 ott 2021 alle ore 13:48 Riccardo Giomi <rgiomi at campus.ul.pt>
ha scritto:

> ...And then of course you have the rhetorical/discourse-marker use of
> ablative *vero* in Latin to mean 'in particular, specifically, that is',
> etc.. This survives in the Italian form *ovvero*, which I would assume
> derives from agglutination of the disjunctive preposition/conjunction *o*
> ('or') + *vero* ('true').
>
> Best,
> R
>
> Carl Whitehead <carlrwhitehead at gmail.com> escreveu no dia quinta,
> 21/10/2021 à(s) 06:52:
>
>> In Menya (Angan sub-family, Trans New Guinea family in Papua New Guinea),
>> the expression for ‘true’ (often used as a response to a question or a
>> affirmation of agreement and also as an adjective or noun) is *naq**ä**
>> qaku**ä*,  where *naq**ä* is ‘big’ and *qaku**ä* is ‘stump, base of a
>> tree’ or ‘basis, reason’. In church circles, the expression is also used
>> at the end of prayers as ‘amen.’
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> *On Behalf
>> Of *Mira Ariel
>> *Sent:* October 21, 2021 10:00 AM
>> *To:* lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> *Cc:* Shirly Orr <orr.shirly at gmail.com>
>> *Subject:* [Lingtyp] Truth markers
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>>
>>
>> My student, Shirly Orr, and I are interested in truth markers, such as
>> *true*, *real, right*.
>>
>> Are they frequently attested in natural languages?
>>
>> We're interested in etymological sources for them, as well as meanings
>> they evolve to express.
>>
>> Any leads on literature we can dig up?
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Mira Ariel
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>>
>
>
> --
> Riccardo Giomi, Ph.D.
> Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa (FLUL)
> Departamento de Linguística Geral e Românica (DLGR)
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>


-- 

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