Mirativity as a semantic notion: The trajectory and status of Sicilian bì

This paper deals with the concept of mirativity - the linguistic expression of surprise- in both synchronic and diachronic terms, by analyzing the case of a dedicated mirative marker in Sicilian, bì (roughly meaning 'oh!'). After pointing out some critical issues in the study of mirativity, the paper delves into the empirical analysis of present-day uses of bì, and reconstructs its evolution in the history of Sicilian. Stemming from the imperative of the verb 'to see', it has evolved from a full verb to a discourse marker (vidì > vì > bì), whose function is precisely to express surprise, and it has developed a further discourse-pragmatic function of correction. In a diachronic perspective, this evolution contributes to understanding the possible sources (attention-getting) and outcomes (correction) of mirativity. The case of bì suggests that mirativity can represent a semantic (coded) meaning, arising from and evolving into pragmatic (inferred) ones. Thus, in a synchronic perspective, mirativity may be understood as a semantic notion, i.e. a type of semantic meaning that languages can mark through dedicated linguistic means, not limited to the level of morphosyntax.