The mirative values of Italian altro che

The Italian linguistic construction [altro che X] (lit. ‘other than X’, also manifested as altroché) is attested in contemporary Italian with two mirative func-tions, “mirative rejection” and “mirative confirmation”, respectively. Based on the CODIT corpus of Italian, this study aims to delineate the evolutionary trajectory of [altro che X] from its original meaning ‘other than/different from’ to its current mirative values of rejection and confirmation. Furthermore, it seeks to demon-strate that the mirative functions of [altro che X] are the culmination of a single dia-chronic pathway, prominently influenced by dialogic, corrective and exclamatory contexts. Finally, drawing from the diachronic evolution of [altro che X], this paper proposes an expanded interpretation of mirativity, encompassing not only surprise triggered by a specific entity or event (first-level mirativity), but also surprise trig-gered by some expectation regarding the validity or invalidity of an entity or event (second-level).