Mesoclisis in Old Occitan

Abstract

This paper delves into the intriguing phenomenon of mesoclisis in Old Occitan. Mesoclisis, the insertion of an object clitic pronoun within the verbal form rather than before or after it, is explored particularly within the context of future and conditional tenses. While mesoclisis is evidenced in both the future and conditional tenses in Old Catalan and Old Spanish, in Occitan, it is exclusively observed in the future tense. Notably, all clitics may feature in this construction, with a higher prevalence observed in the first person singular, especially with class I verbs. Furthermore, there appears to be a lexicalized association with verbs of speech, likely due to discourse-related factors. This investigation not only sheds light on the differential grammaticalization between the future and conditional tenses but also unveils an intermediate stage in their grammatical evolution, bridging the gap between Catalan and French linguistic contexts.

Keywords

• grammaticalization
• future
• mesoclisis
• occitan
• romance