Present and historical perspectives on the Catalan 'go'-past

Abstract

Summary: This paper provides a range of both synchronic and diachronic perspectives on the Catalan go-past, known in the literature as the perfet perifràstic. The first chapter presents an overview of the use and distribution of the feature in contemporary Catalan; the second chapter discusses the diachronic and synchronic attestation of the feature in other Romance languages, Occitan in particular. In chapter 3, the paper summarizes the state of the research on the grammaticalization process that underlies the go-past. In chapter 4, finally, the hypothesis that the feature diffused from (Old) Occitan into (Old) Catalan is postulated and underpinned with both historical and linguistic data. [Keywords: (Old) Catalan; perfet perifràstic / go-past; (Old) Occitan; grammaticalization; diffusion]