‘E sí la hoïren tots’: sí and emphatic positive polarity in Old Catalan

Abstract

This paper explores the semantic value and syntactic distribution of the lexical item sí in Old Catalan. By examining data extracted from 13th century legal and historiographical texts, it is concluded that sí was an Emphatic Positive Polarity Particle (EPPA) whose appearance was restricted to non-veridical contexts, as well as a positive sentential proform, already by that date. This analysis strongly contrasts with analyses put forward for sí in Old Catalan and Old Spanish that date its grammaticalization as an EPPA two centuries later, and with analyses of sí in other Old Romance languages that have linked it to the satisfaction of the V2 parameter.