Els derivatsromànics de parēre i sĭmĭlare en català antic: confluència sinonímica i sintàctica

Abstract

This paper studies the convergence of the Romance derivatives of parēre (appear, seem') and sĭmĭlare (look like, seem') in Old Catalan, induced by syntactic factors and synonymy. This analysis covers formal variants like parer, aparer, paréixer, aparéixer and semblar, ressemblar, assembler. The investigation is based on a full analysis of the linguistic corpus CICA (13th to 16th centuries). We show the polysemy of the verbs studied and delimit the meanings that allow synonymy and the appearance of these verbs in the same syntactic constructions. These data are subjected to a quantitative analysis that enables us to show that it is the derivatives of parēre that are preferred in impersonal and attributive structures, while the derivatives of sĭmĭlare usually appear in the intransitive constructions. Although an Occitan influence has been suggested to account for the vitality of semblar in the early centuries, we propose that it is more appropriate to talk of geosynonymy.