Il problema di si e l'uso riflessivo di essere

Abstract

The graphical form <si> of Medieval Florentine texts may represent two different linguistic forms: the reflexive clitic si and the adverb sì. After a review of several more or less traditional criteria used in distinguishing the two forms, a new morphophonological criterion is proposed which makes possible to decide in a greater number of contexts (although not in all). The old criteria and the new one are then used in the study of the putative reflexive use of the verb essere: although essersi seems very frequent in current editions of Medieval texts, one can show that, apart from some specific syntactic contexts, its use is very limited.