On prefixes and actionality in Classical and Late Latin (original) (raw)
Related papers
Tense, Aspect and Aktionsart in Classical Latin: Towards a New Approach
Symbolae Osloenses, 2018
This paper introduces the framework for a new project on the categories of tense, aspect and Aktionsart in Latin. In the first section, the relevant concepts are defined in terms of general linguistics. The second section provides an overview of the existing theories regarding the verb system and the categories of tense and aspect in Latin. Their shortcomings are listed while the strong points serve as the basis for the development of the current framework. In the third section, Bache’s [2008. English Tense and Aspect in Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar: A Critical Appraisal and an Alternative. Discussions in Functional Approaches to Language. London: Equinox.] SFL-inspired account of English tense and aspect is applied to the Latin verb system, conceptualizing tense and aspect in terms of three metafunctions or dimensions of meaning: ideational (representation of reality), textual (presentation of the text) and interpersonal (interaction with the audience). In the fourth section, the framework is illustrated with texts from Caesar, Livy and Sallust, showing that “perspective” (focalization) is essential to the linguistic analysis of narratives.
Linguisticae Dissertationes. Current Perspectives on Latin Grammar, Lexicon and Pragmatics (2021), pp. 33-44
The Indo-European nasal infix is known to have served to create the present stem from a verbal root. In Latin this nasal element -n- spread to perfects and/or perfect participles as well, though depending on verbs. Such a selective n-extension remains unexplained. This paper is devoted to elucidating the factors behind this extension with special attention to the semantics of verbs, particularly, their aspectual features. The properties of the final consonant of the verbal root are also taken into consideration. As a result, the way the nasal appears beyond the present is overall determined by the following questions: (1a) Does the verb indicate a (punctual) change of state or is it durative? (1b) Does the verb show duration only before the endpoint of its action or also implies that a state resulting from the action was retained? (2) Does the verb have a velar in root-final position? These semantic (1a-b) and phonological (2) factors, probably independent of each other in origin, may have overlapped through time to end up as a sort of condition either inhibiting or facilitating the spread of -n-.
Some Remarks on Grammatical Aspect in Latin. Philologia Classica 2016, 11(2), 282–288.
Spevak O. Some Remarks on Grammatical Aspect in Latin. Philologia Classica 2016, 11(2), 282–288., 2016
The existence of grammatical aspect in Latin is a much discussed issue. The main aim of this article is to review different approaches to this question and to discuss important arguments that have to be taken into consideration. Besides the traditional view according to which there is an aspectual difference between the infectum and perfectum stems, two other arguments claiming the existence of aspect in Latin have been proposed: aspect as a category inherited from Indo-European and aspectual difference between the Latin perfect and imperfect tense. On the one hand, I will argue that the difference between the perfect and the imperfect is of a temporal nature and that the Latin perfect is used both for telic (terminative) states of affairs and atelic (non-terminative) ones. Furthermore, the Latin perfect combines with expressions of duration which, except for special cases, are excluded with Russian perfective verbs.
MORPHOLOGY IN ACTION: SOME ISSUES IN THE FORMATION OF THE LATIN PERFECT
Linguisticae Dissertationes. Current Perspectives on Latin Grammar, Lexicon and Pragmatics Selected Papers from the 20th International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, June 17-21, 2019), 2021
In this paper we analyse some complex issues of Latin verb morphology in the light of the Nanosyntactic framework. In particuar we show that two asymmetries in the formation of the perfect stem are deeply related, that is the analytic strategy with deponent verbs, and the 'affix-deletion' of -sc, -n, -j with verbs with marked present stem. We claim that, in both cases, the asymmetries are due to the impossibility of managing via normal affixation a complex syntactic constituent in which the Perfect layer interacts either with non active Voice or Action.
Some Remarks on Grammatical Aspect in Latin
Philologia Classica, 2016
The existence of grammatical aspect in Latin is a much discussed issue. The main aim of this article is to review different approaches to this question and to discuss important arguments that have to be taken into consideration. Besides the traditional view according to which there is an aspectual difference between the infectum and perfectum stems, two other arguments claiming the existence of aspect in Latin have been proposed: aspect as a category inherited from Indo-European and aspectual difference between the Latin perfect and imperfect tense. On the one hand, I will argue that the difference between the perfect and the imperfect is of a temporal nature and that the Latin perfect is used both for telic (terminative) states of affairs and atelic (non-terminative) ones. Furthermore, the Latin perfect combines with expressions of duration which, except for special cases, are excluded with Russian perfective verbs.
Caught in between: a synchronic and diachronic account of inter-prefixation in Latin.
This paper explores the patterns of inter-prefixation in Latin. By adopting a Cognitive Grammar perspective, I discuss how inter-verbs instantiate three basic spatial meanings, or schemas, that is, BETWEEN, INTERVALS and CENTER, to which additional schemas may be added. The chronological distribution and productivity of individual schemas is then assessed thanks to data from the LASLA corpus. I also explore various diachronic processes that have led from these spatial meanings to the creation of more abstract ones, chiefly temporal meanings. In addition, I focus on how synchronically lexicalized inter-verbs, e.g. dico ‘say’ interdico ‘forbid’, have historically come about. A diachronic perspective shows that, besides well-known dynamics of semantic change (e.g. metaphor, contextual inferences), analogy may have also played a role in the spread of inter-prefixation.
Dormivit et resurgit. A ‘language-ecology’ approach to the diachrony of the Latin ingressive perfect
Journal of Latin Linguistics, 2024
After the merger of the perfect and aorist stems, the resulting perfectum stem in Latin kept their less central functions such as resultativity and ingressivity as marked aspectual meanings in its semantic potential. Occurring first in literary and especially poetic text, as a dormant, archaic function, its use was revived in the 4th century due to intensifying exchanges with New Testament Greek, where the ingressive aorist was still more productive. The current paper examines, on the basis of a representative sample selected from all relevant time periods and various text types, perfectum stem forms of a substantial amount of stative verbs in a close-reading process, in order to ascertain more accurately the dynamics of the diachrony of Latin ingressivity. The occurrence rate of this form-function pairing is compared to significant alternations of a number of contextual factors, such as discourse type, mood, predicate fronting and the dynamics in the system of lexical ingressivity.
“The Latin Infinitival Structures with Modal and Aspectual Verbs”
in J.M. Tirkkonen e E. Attinkoski (eds), Proceedings of the 24th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics, Joensuu Eastern Finland, Publications of the University of Eastern Finland. Reports and Studies in Education, Humanities and Theology, pp. 297-310.
This paper presents an analysis of restructuring structures (henceforth RSs) with modal and aspectual verbs in archaic and classical Latin. In particular, extending previous analyses and Costantini and Zennaro (2010)), I will provide various examples in order to demonstrate that all Latin modal (audeo, I dare; debeo, I must; exopto, I desire; malo, I prefer; nequeo, I cannot; nolo, I do not want; possum, I can; queo, I am able to; volo, I want) and aspectual verbs (aggredior, to be about to; cesso, I stop; coepi/incipio, I start; conor, I try; cunctor, I wait; curo, I make effort to; desino, I leave out; festino, I speed up; maturo, I accelerate; persevero, I continue; soleo I usually) enter RSs. Furthermore, I will discuss some of their properties in relation to ) theory on the hierarchy of functional projections. I will show that the syntactic behaviour of each of the modal and aspectual verbs depends on the kind of modality or aspectuality they express, that is, on the functional projection they occupy with respect to the others, and to the Past Tense in particular.
The paper analyses passages from the works of two Latin grammarians, which in the author's opinion have been incorrectly analysed by modern linguists and historians of Latin. Both logical lucubration and interlinguistic comparison with Greek mark the ductus of argumentations of Latin grammarians in these passages: in their opinion, an exhortative sentence like aperta sil p-irta could be compared with a Greek construction like llvE(XOw fi tr&M , in which the verbal form really is a passive perfect imperative. Aperta sit, on the other hand, was a perfect subjunctive. which in the sentence apena sil porra should actually mean "'le/ the door have been opened-", since the perfect meant the past in Latin, while in Greek the perfect imperative meant the command of speaker that an action be brought to an end. To solve this problem, Latin grammarians used pseudological argumentation%. We recognize in the form caperut sty, which has been variously explained by grammarians, a neo-formation of the passive present subjunctive, for in Late Latin the synthetic forms of the passive diathesis such as •aperlatur had been substituted by analytic same such as apesta sit on account of the phenomenon called -TernpcusverschlebunR of Passive Diathesis".