On documenting language change as it happens : the periphrastic construction

Abstract

This study examines the grammaticalization of motion verbs in Italian within the periphrastic construction "motion verb + a + infinitive". Verbs such as andare 'to go', venire 'to come' and tornare 'to return' develop functional uses and express aspectual meanings, such as culminative, inchoative-imminential and iterative. The research employs corpus analysis to investigate the distribution of these constructions across formal and informal varieties of Italian. Analysis of both spoken (KIParla) and written (CORIS) corpora indicates diaphasic and diamesic variation. Formal written varieties exhibit higher percentages of aspectual values, while spontaneous speech shows lower percentages. Additionally, the corpus investigation reveals differences in the frequency of aspectual values, with the inchoative-imminential value being more prevalent in spoken language compared to written texts.