Temporal, aspectual, and modal evaluation in nominal reference: the case of Italian

This paper investigates how Italian speakers evaluate nominal reference along temporal, aspectual, and modal dimensions. Drawing on large-scale corpora (ItWac, Repubblica, WikiCoNLL, itTenTen20), we show that Italian, despite lacking grammaticalized nominal TAM, displays a wide repertoire of evaluative constructions that recalibrate the validity of categorization in the noun phrase. Prefixes such as ex , neo , and quasi , compounds with non or non più , and adverbial modifiers such as già , ancora , or forse systematically encode reference as expired, incipient, continuous, potential, or otherwise non-prototypical. Our analysis demonstrates that these forms are not marginal lexical curiosities but constitute a productive subsystem of evaluative morphology. By foregrounding temporality, prototypicality, and stance, they turn categorization into a process open to negotiation. Approximation frequently emerges as a consequence of TAM-oriented evaluation, though it is not its only outcome. The Italian case thus contributes to the typology of evaluative strategies by highlighting the noun phrase as a key locus where reference, stance, and categorization intersect.