The grammaticalization path of Latin <i>post</i> across the Dolomitic region

Abstract This article offers a comparative survey of the distributional and interpretive properties of the adverbial particles po/pa across the Dolomitic region. By comparing the syntactic behaviour and the semantic contribution of this lexical item in different but closely related dialects, I try to better characterize the diachronic process of grammaticalization the Latin adverb post has undergone in the relevant geographic area, showing that it amounts essentially to a successive upward reanalysis along the functional spine of the clausal hierarchy. In this particular case, an erstwhile temporal and locative adverb takes up a discourse-related functional value, turning eventually into a marker of (canonical or non-canonical) interrogative force. The structural portion involved in the process seems to correspond to the highest functional projections identified by Cinque (1999) .