Piuttosto che: dalla preferenza all’esemplificazione di alternative

The aim of this work is twofold. It aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the functions attested for piuttosto che in Italian and at the same time to explain the diachronic path that led to the development of such functions. Together with the original value, with which the connective introduces the descarted alternative, piuttosto che is frequently used also i) to link equivalent, typically non-exhaustive, alternatives, and ii) in clause-final position, to suggest the presence of further, not mentioned potential alternatives (behaving partially like etcetera). These two uses of piuttosto che are characterized by an exemplificative function, through which the mentioned alternatives are presented as potential and representative members of a super-ordinate category. Both the synchronic and the diachronic analysis are based on a corpus of data specifically designed for the aims of this paper, including occurrences from spoken language and coming from the web, which may show those functions that are not attested in the written language yet. Together with the diachronic analysis, we will also provide a comparative prospective, aimed at showing how the path of change followed by piuttosto che has several counterparts in different languages.