AUFSÄTZE

CORINNE DENOYELLE
Un nouveau fragment inédit du Merlin en prose

This article is an edition of a 14th-century manuscript fragment that was found in the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library of the University of Toronto in May 2012 by the librarian Pearce Carefoote. The fragment consists of a parchment double leaf (two leaves of two columns each) from the prose Romance of Merlin. It was used as a paste-down leaf on the inside of the back cover of a 16th-century volume of three commentaries on Pope Boniface VIII’s Sextus Liber decretalium. The fragment deals with Uther’s wedding with Igerne and the revelation of her pregnancy. It belongs to the manuscript family x3 according to the stemma established by Alexandre Micha and it follows the readings of manuscripts CDG, although with some lacunae. Its language is characterized by some northern French, especially Picard, features.

BERNHARD HUSS
Cum ipsis sensibus labor et pugna. Zur Lyrik von Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s poetry is contextualized by his own poetological statements, negotiating the tension between vernacular Petrarchism and the metaphysical and theological tenets of Renaissance philosophy. Although Pico’s poems are overshadowed by his philosophical writings in existing research, poetry plays a far more important role within his oeuvre than most critics are ready to admit. Pico’s demand is for a poetic discourse charged with doctrinal subtexts. In the Quattrocento, poetry and rhetoric are not yet sharply distinguished in terms of theory – a systematic poetics of genre emerges only later, during the Cinquecento. If «eloquence» in general is to be compatible with philosophy in the 14th century, this must equally apply to poetry. On its linguistic surface, Pico’s vernacular poetry clearly exhibits the influence of Petrarchism. Yet while his poems deploy the established patterns of the Petrarchan tradition, Pico attempts to invest these texts with a metaphysical dimension. This attempt yields varying results – towards the end of his poetic production (his poetry does not in fact constitute mere juvenilia, as has frequently been assumed), Pico appears to be disillusioned with vernacular poetry, negating the ability of poetic discourse to master «cum ipsis sensibus labor et pugna».

MARIO GARVIN
El Libro de cincuenta romances. Historia editorial de un impreso perdido

The history of the circulation of the printed versions of the Spanish Romancero begins in the 16th century with the appearance of the pliegos sueltos which are usually referred to in English as chapbooks, mostly four pages long and containing romances. In the middle of that century the Cancionero de romances a 275 page book containing more than 150 romances was published in Antwerp. The history of the printed circulation of the Romancero has been written with reference to these two basic dates and hence has been understood as a development from the pliegos sueltos to bigger collections of romances. Historically speaking, not much attention has been paid to the Libro de cincuenta romances. The accepted date of publication, i.e. ca. 1525, and the fifty romances mentioned in the title make this book very relevant to the history of publishing. The Libro de cincuenta romances reveals itself to be the product of a concrete situation in Valencia in the 1520’s. As such it demonstrates that the various forms of the Romancero are not to be understood as part of a homogeneous development.

CÉSAR GUTIÉRREZ
La evolución de las secuencias latinas [min] en español

The evolution of Latin sequences [min] to Spanish [mbɾ] has traditionally been accounted for through a syncope of the unstressed vowel and rhotacism of the alveolar nasal. This relative chronology is based on written records from the Middle Ages, in which spellings such as , and are found. However, from a phonetic perspective the sound change [mn] > [mɾ] is problematic. Since consonant lenition is cross-linguistically more prone to happen in weak positions (i.e., coda and intervocalic) than in strong positions (i.e., onset), the rhotacism of the [n] in the [mn] sequences, which is in post-consonantal syllable-onset position, is not expected. Rather, progressive assimilation, regressive assimilation or lenition of [m] are processes more likely to be undergone by [mn] sequences. This article proposes that the rhotacism occurred prior to the syncope ([min] > [mi/eɾ]), which accounts for the flapping of the nasal in intervocalic position. There is evidence of the same sound change in other Romance languages where the unstressed vowel did not syncope. From the philological point of view, the lack of <mi/er> spellings in the medieval documentation is explained as a consequence of the logographic scriptae that were used in most Iberian kingdoms until the 12th century.

YOLANDA LÓPEZ ARCA, MARÍA JOSÉ RODRÍGUEZ ESPIÑEIRA
Adjetivos denominales y relaciones argumentales

This paper focuses on relational adjectives (A-REL) that modify deverbal nouns. It aims to demonstrate that the argumental (or thematic) relationships expressed by these adjectives vary and that they are dependent not only on the N-A-REL link but also on the discourse context and on speakers’ general knowledge. We compare the encoding of an argument as an adjective and as a prepositional phrase. It is argued that the difference between classifying and thematic adjectives (Bosque 1993) is blurred in usage, as classifying readings that establish oppositionally-organized fields of application of the N are also attributed to argumental adjectives. It is thought that the relevant factor of this superposition is that the only formal marking of the N-A-REL relation is the postposition, and that this mark signals a contrastive characterization, that is, a characterization that establishes differences (Klein-Andreu 1983).

ELENA FELÍU ARQUIOLA, ENRIQUE PATO
De modificador aspectual a atenuador oracional. Nuevos datos sobre la evolución de medio

This study provides new data on the evolution of medio along the history of the Spanish language both from a distributional and a semantic point of view. With respect to the distributional perspective, this work shows, using data from Corpus del español, that the adverb medio extended its combinatorial possibilities throughout the centuries, from a small initial group of lexical categories to a larger lexical group and also to syntagmatic categories, including the clause or the sentence. As for the semantic perspective, this paper shows how this distributional extension involves a semantic change: medio evolved from aspectual to evaluative modifier and finally, in the twentieth century, to attenuator of sentence modality, understood in a broad sense.

MARCIAL MORERA, DOLORES GARCÍA PADRÓN
Desarrollos semánticos de los gentilicios hispánicos

Gentilics, also called ethnonyms or demonyms, are a special kind of lexical item in languages. Their semantic-denotative function can be described as ‘related to the topos ’, from which senses like ‘belonging to persons, animals, plants, etc.’ must be considered as secondary or tertiary meanings. The aim of this paper is to explain how the semantic mechanisms involved in the development of new lexical variations work to produce new adjectival and substantive meanings. A classification of the denotational spheres of the main personal senses is provided through the analysis of Spanish examples, as well as an explanation about the lexicalization processes concerned. This analysis is carried out from a semantic point of view, thus it is necessary to separate the basic meaning from the variations derived from its contextual use, since this kind of words usually incorporate positive and pejorative values. Finally, some indications about the lexicographical definitions of gentilic are suggested in order to define them according to their particular idiosyncrasy among deonomastics.

XOSÉ AFONSO ÁLVAREZ PÉREZ
Isoglossas portuguesas nos materiais do Atlas Lingüístico de la Península Ibérica. Análise crítica da Nova Proposta de Lindley Cintra

Luis F. Lindley Cintra established a classification of Portuguese dialects (Nova proposta de classificação dos dialectos galego-portugueses, 1964–1971) that has become a well-known reference in Portuguese studies. This dialectal analysis was based on his personal experience as a field researcher for the Atlas Lingüístico de la Península Ibérica (ALPI) during the 1950s. However, a close examination of the maps contained in the only published volume of the ALPI (1962) reveals some discrepancies with Cintra’s linguistic classification, and these differences are confirmed by the unpublished materials of the Atlas Linguístico-Etnográfico de Portugal e da Galiza (ALEPG). Therefore, it is imperative to assess the internal consistency of the Nova proposta. With this aim in mind, this paper undertakes a quantitative analysis of almost 50.000 forms extracted from the unpublished materials of the ALPI in order to examine the geographic distribution and frequency of use of the five phenomena used by Cintra to establish his proposal. The utilization of a sizable corpus and quantitative cartography provides a more dynamic picture of the dissemination of linguistic change and the vitality of dialectal features. This analysis reveals several inconsistencies in Cintra’s proposal, due to the limitations of traditional dialectology and an opaque data selection.

WOLFGANG SCHWEICKARD
Arabismi nella Descrittione dell’Africa di Leone Africano

The Cosmographia & geographia dell’Africa (later simply Descrittione dell’Africa ) of the Arab-born author Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammed al-Wazzān (after his conversion to Christianity Leo Africanus) is one of the most important historical sources of the early exploration of Africa. The original Italian manuscript dates from 1526, the Editio princeps appeared in 1550, translations have been published in 1556 (French), 1600 (English), 1665 (Dutch), 1805 (German) and 1952 (Spanish). The vocabulary of the text is extraordinarily rich, but until today only few studies have been conducted on this subject. The present article aims to illustrate the fundamental interest of the work from the point of view of lexicology and lexicography, focussing on the historical documentation and analysis of selected loanwords from Arabic ( amir cabir, amiralf, amiri achor, amirmia, amirsileh, chazendare, chetebeessere, eddaguadare, muachih, muhtesib, nadheasse, nai bessan, ostadar, testecana ).

BESPRECHUNGSAUFSATZ

ANDREA GIRAUDO
Le vite occitane di Santa Margherita d’Antiochia: su due recenti edizioni critiche

The spread of the worship of saint Margaret of Antioch went along with the success of the legend which remembers her martyrdom (beginning of the IV century). The success of the tale is proven by its many versions in vernacular languages, among which there are two Occitan poems depending upon the Latin version published by Bonino Mombrizio (late XV century). The longest text is attested in a single copy; the shortest one in two copies and some fragments. Both versions hadn’t been studied carefully until 2012, when two critical editions (with linguistic and metric analysis) were published by Roberta Manetti (limited to the long version) and Maria Sofia Lannutti (extended to both of them). The review aims to compare them and to stress their strong and weak points.

BESPRECHUNGEN

Sascha Gaglia / Marc-Olivier Hinzelin (edd.), Inflection and Word Formation in Romance Languages (CLAUDIA PICHLER)

Thomas Stehl, Funktionale Variationslinguistik. Untersuchungen zur Dynamik von Sprachkontakten in der Galloromania und Italoromania (CHRISTIAN SCHMITT)

Violence and the Writing of History in the Medieval Francophone World, edited by Noah D. Guynn and Zrinka Stahuljak (DARON BURROWS)

Jean de Noyal, Miroir Historial. Livre X, Édition critique par Per Förnegård (WOLFGANG SCHWEICKARD)

Sergio Romanelli, A gênese do processo tradutório (EDUARDO BLASCO FERRER)

John Florio, A worlde of wordes, A critical edition with an introduction by Hermann W. Haller (WOLFGANG SCHWEICKARD)

Dario Generali (ed.), Antonio Vallisneri: Che ogni italiano debba scrivere in lingua purgata italiana, o toscana, per debito, per giustizia e per decoro della nostra Italia. Lettera del sig. N. N. * al sig. Alessandro Pegolotti, segretario di belle lettere del serenissimo di Guastalla (WOLFGANG SCHWEICKARD)

Francesco Sestito, I nomi di battesimo a Firenze (1450-1900). Dai registri di Santa Maria del Fiore un contributo allo studio dellʼantroponimia storica italiana (ANGELO VARIANO)

NACHRUF

Nelson Cartagena (1. Februar 1937 – 8. November 2014) (JENS LÜDTKE)