From Static to Interactive Maps: Drawing Diachronic Maps of (Latin) Modality with Pygmalion

Abstract

In this paper, we present the diachronic maps of a selection of 75 Latin modal markers designed through the tool Pygmalion. Both the maps and Pygmalion were conceived in the framework of the WoPoss project, which aims at analysing the diachronic pathways of modality in Latin. While the description of the tool and its functionalities is beyond the scope of this paper, we focus here on the description of our diachronic modal maps.Using visualisations to represent semantic shifts is a well-known practice in some linguistic fields such as typology and lexicography, and they have already been applied to modality. Though the situation is rapidly evolving, typological semantic maps as well as lexicographic maps are still for the most part static and usually not-interactive visualisations. Our modal maps stand out not only for their interactivity, but also for the richness of the information conveyed: chronology, etymology, semantics, syntax, first attestation and diachronic relationships between the meanings.

Modal markers in co-occurrence: a study on Terence's comedies

“…The absence of some of the markers from Table 4 was expected. The diachronic maps of modal markers produced within the WoPoss project (Marongiu and Dell'Oro 2022) show that (il)licitus, possibilis, possibilitas and probabilis all emerged, according to lexicographic sources, after the 2nd century BC. Therefore these four modal markers (and their negative counterparts) do not occur at all in the comedies.…”