Modality markers in Gascon, between grammar and stylistic variation

Abstract

The content of this article is a survey of the distribution and functions of the so-called enunciative particles in the Gascon dialect of Occitan. This is a well known topic in romance linguistics and particularly in Occitan studies, but our aim here is to treat the subject from a new perspective, widening the frame in order to include more complex contexts (as for example the different values of the particle se as an introducer of direct and indirect interrogatives), and taking evidentiality as a frame to consider the enunciative que and others like plan, be and ja. Eventually, we ask about the nature of que as it has followed a process of grammaticalization in some varieties of Gascon which apparently has lead it to lose its function as evidentiality marker and to display a purely declarative value; seemingly that function has been taken on by facultative particles as for example be and ja, for which a liaison between their role as modality markers and their adverbial origin is still appreciable. For some contexts we also establish a connexion between Occitan and Catalan, suggesting then a wider perspective as those two languages share some common strategies of modality expression as a particularity in the romance domain