From digressive marker to topic shifter and beyond. The case of Italian tra parentesi (‘in brackets’)

This paper aims to investigate the uses and functions of the phrasal adverb tra parentesi (literally ‘in brackets’) in present-day Italian. Tra parentesi is the verbalization of the punctuation mark < ( ) >. It is used both in written and spoken texts as a strategy to signal a slight digression from the main topic, in which secondary, non-central information is presented. The expression has also developed other uses in which digression is not at stake, such as topic shifting. Such changes were followed by an increase in subjectification and intersubjectification, whereby tra parentesi acquired new functions as a focus marker and as a turn-taking device. The analysis will show (i) that contrary to Pons Bordería & Estellés Arguedas (2009), digressive markers, i.e. dedicated markers overtly encoding the beginning of a digression, exist; (ii) that they may develop further functions in which digression is not at stake (topic shifting, additive focus marking, turn taking); and (iii) that they may be recruited to serve these new functions mostly for politeness reasons: since changing topic implies some discontinuity that requires the hearer's attention, marking a topic shift by means of a marker originally used to signal the beginning of a digression allows the speaker/writer to be less blunt and to soften the transition to the new topic.