Núria Alturo & Marianna Chodorowska-Pilch
University of
Barcelona (UB), Spain,
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) / University of Southern California (USC)
Grammaticalization and extension of the usage of the Catalan marker sisplau
Various studies have shown that conditional structures may be used to convey meanings other than conditional or hypothetical ones (Sweetser 1990, Schwenter 1996, Montolío 1999, Athanasiadou and Dirven 2000, Salvador 2002, inter alia).
Among numerous uses of conditional constructions, the so called ‘politeness conditional’ (Geis 1995) plays a significant role in various languages; e.g. English (Geis 1995), Finnish (Kauppinen 1999), Japanese (Fuji 1995), Spanish (Montolío 1993).
The present study examines the evolution and the contemporary use of sisplau ‘please’, which originates in a conditional construction si us plau (lit.’ if it pleases you [pl.]’). The main objective is to demonstrate that sisplau seems to be at the last stage of grammaticalization as a discourse marker to convey politeness as well as non-politeness meanings in Catalan. One of the contemporary uses of sisplau can be illustrated by example (1):
(1) -- Vols aigua?
-- Sí, sisplau.
‘Whould you like some water?
Yes, please.’ (Payrató and Alturo, 2002: 01/937-939)
It is well accepted that si us plau functions as a polite formula to mitigate orders and requests in Catalan (Ruaix 1995, Wheeler et al. 1999, Salvador 2002, Espinal 2004), in uses similar to example (1). At the same time, researchers mention sisplau either as a colloquial variant (Rouix 1995, Espinal 2004) or as a coexisting possibility (Bladas 2000, Cuenca 2002, Salvador 2002). Only a few openly use and defend sisplau (cf. Solà 1999, Vallverdú 2000). This study shows that nowadays the use of the latter is more frequent and extensive in Catalan. Indeed, it substitutes the more formal si us plau as a natural result of grammaticalization and acquires new uses in language.
Data obtained from the Internet, dramas, and different oral and written corpora seem to suggest that the role of the verb plaure ‘to please’ starts to diminish gradually with the emergence of the verb agradar ‘to please’ starting in the XIVth century. However, the final fusion of the conditional structure into sisplau begins in the late XXth century. The growing frequency of usage of sisplau, a loss of syntactic freedom, and most importantly the pragmatic strengthening of the construction into a marker that in determined contexts mitigates and in others emphasizes the propositional meaning of utterances, provide clear indication of the grammaticalization process of sisplau in Catalan (cf. Traugott 1989).
The paper corroborates and goes beyond the main arguments on the use of sisplau proposed in Solà (1999). In particular, it shows that the marker in question has reached the stage of being fully grammaticalized. It also demonstrates the extension of use of this marker in the synchronic perspective.
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