The Hebrew adverbial bixlal

Resumo

The Modern Hebrew adverbial bixlal (at all /any /actually/in fact /even /anyway /in general/ generally /altogether /in the first place) seems puzzling from a synchronic point of view since it functions both as a NPI lo..bixlal /bixlal lo (not…any/at all) and as a Discourse Marker(DM) in positive environments, being interpreted either as an 'in general' DM when focused (stressed) or as an 'actually' DM when unfocused (unstressed). As a result, it has been the focus of various papers examining both its semantics and discursive use (Migron 2003, Ziv 2012, Greenberg and Khrizman 2012, Kadmon and Sevi, 2014, as well as its possible grammaticization path (Tsirkin-Sadan 2015). The Solution that we offer is that bixlalis a polysemy and its multiple meanings difference can be explained diachronically. We shall provide historical evidence as well as provide bridging examples which explain the shift from one stage to another down the grammaticization path.