Andare a + infinitives in oral Italian cooking instructions

Abstract

Within the framework of the project “Constructivist Studies of Grammatical Phenomena in Interaction” (School of Languages, National University of Córdoba), this paper examines the use of the construction andare a + infinitive (literally “to be going to + infinitive) in oral Italian cooking instructions. The study is grounded in the theoretical frameworks of Construction Grammar, Grammaticalization Theory, and Emergent Grammar (Hopper, 1987), according to which grammatical structures emerge from discursive use. The periphrasis andare a + infinitive is relatively uncommon in general Italian and has received little attention in traditional grammar. However, an intensive use is observed in culinary contexts, especially with the present and future tenses of the indicative mood, when cooks explain procedures. We explore the functional value of this construction in language change from a cognitive perspective, in which each grammatical form carries a specific meaning. The corpus of study includes videos from the website Giallo Zafferano and the television program È sempre mezzogiorno (RAI). Instances of the construction were collected, transcribed, and analyzed in relation to the theoretical framework. The results show that andare a + infinitive organizes the temporality of instructional discourse: it marks imminence, present actions, or processual sequences. In some cases, it also serves as a pragmatic strategy to avoid pauses during speech production. The study concludes that this construction is a distinctive resource of contemporary oral culinary discourse.