Storia di un imperativo divenuto interiezione: ammazza!

This study reconstructs the development, in nineteenth- and twentiethcentury Romanesco, of ammazza!, from ‘kill.IMP.2SG’ to an interjection expressing surprise. The mirative value, initially only attested when the imperative form was followed by a 3rd or 2nd person clitic (ammazzela! ‘kill her!’, ammazzelo! ‘kill him!’, ammazzete! ‘kill yourself!’, etc.), was then extended also to a form without clitics. From the semantic point of view, while the first attestations express disapproval (conjoined with surprise), soon the form started to be used to express admiration. This development, which is documented also for the euphemistic variant ammappa!, and which was borrowed from Romanesco by colloquial Italian, is analyzed as a possible instance of grammaticalization, yielding a form which expresses semantic values typical of the category of mirativity.