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Though the emergence of modality from verbs of motion is a well-attested phenomenon, the assessment of cross-linguistically valid pathways still remains a desideratum. In this paper I offer an outline of the pathway followed by the understudied Italian modal verb  occorrere  ‘to happen; to be necessary/needed’ (from Latin  occurrere , originally ‘to run towards, into something or someone’). Based on the analysis of two large corpora, this paper reconstructs the emergence of the impersonal constructions ‘ occorre  + INF’ and ‘ occorre che  + SBJV’ vis-à-vis the personal one (‘to be needed’). The data and their analysis confirm the complexity of the pathway: in fact, the emergence of modality is strongly interlaced with the co-presence of the ancient meaning ‘to happen’, but also with the emergence of a deontic construction in which  occorrere  assumes the function of the auxiliary  essere  (‘to be’) as well as with the later evolution of another construction with negative polarity and in which  occorrere  is a telic metaphoric verb of motion. Though the pathway followed by Italian  occorrere  could be idiosyncratic in a cross-linguistic perspective, its in-depth study sheds new light on the question of how modality emerges and in particular on its source domains and their relations.

Verbs of motion and intermediate source domains of modality: the understudied case of Italian occorrere ‘to be necessary, to be needed’