The interpretation of the pronoun ipse in St. Gall charters. Focus strength, stacked referring expressions and textual distance
Abstract
The present study aims to further explore the Late Latin demonstrative use of the 8th-century parchment private charters of St. Gall. A previous study (Pálfi 2023) applied a heterogenous method considering not just the charters’ linguistic character, but also their compositional strategies, i.e. their strict wording (formulas). Within this framework, the present study further investigates the problematic duplicated phrases of ipse+supradictus+N and seeks to determine whether this construction signals semantic instability (vacillation in the demonstrative’s focusing force perceived by the language user) and whether ipse is developing a higher focusing value characteristic of proximal demonstratives. Therefore, a diachronic analysis and a textual distance examination are conducted. Apart from ipse, the results of the previous study regarding hic, iste, ille and idem are also reassessed.
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