Adverbial expressions within the legal domain: from medieval fueros to their consolidation in language

Abstract

Given the importance of legal language in the study of historical phraseological, it is here analyzed the presence, use and evolution of adverbial phrases in some outstanding medieval fueros, and also how a good number of adverbial expressions have transcended and developed from legal language to other contexts, owed to —at least in some cases— a clear colloquial origin (a sabiendas, por bien...). This characteristic joins many others, such as the creation of complex syntagmas derived from the union of simple expressions: de cabo a rabo, a diestro y a sinestro, a tuerto o a derecho, etc. It is therefore interesting to study the individual, particular history of each adverbial phrase found, as well as the most productive syntactical combinations of expressions. We will also focus on their projection beyond the legal domain as well as on the numerous similarities in the different hispanic linguistic areas, demonstrating thus a first phase which is common to peninsular romance writings (scriptae).