Collocations with attenuators and parametric verbs in Old French and Old Spanish. A contrastive study

Abstract

This paper lists and describes names that function as reinforcements of negation when combined with parametric verbs in Old French and Medieval Spanish literary corpora. These names are referred to as “name(s) of minimum value” (Nmin_val). They are analyzed as anti-intensive collocatives whose bases correspond to the parametric verbs they pair with. Firstly, we define our object of study (1). The Nmin_val of Old French are then classified according to their features and syntactic-semantic classes (2.1). Afterwards, we describe the verbal bases and modifiers that sometimes pair with the varied Nmin_val (2.2). The classification process is repeated for Medieval Spanish, detailing their features and syntactic-semantic classes (3.1), and describing the verb bases and modifiers (3.2). In the conclusion (4), we highlight the similarities and differences between the two languages. Notably, Old French shows a greater use of clothing items as Nmin_val, while Medieval Spanish displays a marked preference for animal names. Additionally, we incorporate various nouns not included in previous works.