Revue Romane. Langue et littérature. International Journal of Romance Languages and Literatures - Volume 53, Issue 2, 2018

The French construction heureusement que shows a que that has been recently analyzed as a very specific relative pronoun, an evidential que, which introduces a proposition considered as having been previously uttered. On the other hand, the pronoun qui – apart from its common use as an anaphoric relative – had a specific function until the end of the 17th century: it could be used with no antecedent, and with an indefinite and suppositive value meaning ‘if one’. The first part of this study draws up a full list of both constructions in French. The second part of the study is mainly diachronic, and explores the origins of these two pronouns in classical Latin, as well as their evolution through Romance languages, namely French, Italian and Spanish.

This study addresses the peculiar pattern of root-allomorphy exhibited by the Italo-Romance preterite. Stimulated by a recent study by Mark Elson, which depends on upholding the traditional view that the phenomenon in Italo-Romance is attributable to sound change and to the subsequent analogical extension of its paradigmatic effects, I review familiar and new examples both from Italo-Romance and from Ibero-Romance, arguing instead that the available evidence casts doubt on the phonological interpretation, and strongly favours an interpretation couched in purely morphological terms.

This article examines four hypotheses that have been suggested in the recent discussion on the syntactic status of French short adverbs such as in aller direct and manger gras (Noailly, 1994, Abeillé & Godard, 2004, amongst others). According to the first hypothesis (A), short adverbs are not adverbs but adjectives used beside the verb (“adverbal adjectives”). The second hypothesis (B) follows from the commonplace affirmation of adverbal adjectives being invariable (lacking gender and number agreement). The third hypothesis (C) suggests the analysis of one group of adverbal adjectives as complements of the verb instead of verb modifiers. Finally, it has been assumed that the adverbal adjective is a “light constituent” (Hypothesis D). Theses hypotheses are tested against data stemming from the future Dictionnaire historique de l’adjectif-adverbe. The database of this dictionary includes some 17,000 attested examples of short adverb usage. It will be shown that only Hypothesis A can be verified.

This article proposes a comparative study on Reducciones (2012), by Jaime Huenún (Chile) and Sanjut de tran (2011), by Luciano Cecchinel (Italy), two contemporary poetry works that present indigenous/local civilizations to a globalized readership in a similar way. It analyzes the mediations, at different levels of the work, which allow the reader to enter the represented cultural world through an approach that emphasizes perceptions and intercultural contact. The hypothesis is that, thanks to a diegetic figure who mediates and the cultural explanatory notes, these works posit the chore of the represented culture as an enigma (Agamben), that the reader can experience through thickness (Merleau-Ponty), mimesis (Gibbs) and with tact (Derrida/Nancy).

This paper deals with the model of Renaissance tragedy in Calderon’s first tragedies. In this model, the topic of the changing Fortune is essential in the configuration of the tragic structure of the play. Its use determines, in some of his early works, the possibility of establishing certain and recognizable patterns in the construction of the main characters, through the interaction of two fundamental principles of the public function, with different applications – and located between the limits of the political and moral qualities defined by the social praxis – : the authority and the use of power. Thus, Zenobia, Aurelian and Decio exemplify opposites models in relation of these two principles of political theory.

In this article, I study the use of Norway as a poetic symbol in Spanish Golden Age poetry. First, exploring the earliest mentions and descriptions of the North in Spanish, I present the origin of Norway’s perception as a marvellous and extraordinary geography. Then, I try to trace and explain how the original symbolic motif (related to the topical characteristics: cold, darkness, falcons), was displaced to more complex poetic uses. In special in the works of Luis de Góngora and Francisco de Quevedo.