Cover not available
Part of
Perspectives on Historical Syntax
Edited by Carlotta Viti
[Studies in Language Companion Series 169] 2015
► pp. 233–250

Studying word order changes in Latin

Some methodological remarks

ORCID logo | Ghent University
The main aim of this contribution is to argue that a linear string of Latin words can correspond to more than one syntactic structure, and that this potential for structural ambiguity has important methodological consequences for the synchronic and diachronic study of Latin word order. On the basis of a detailed case study on the much-discussed OV/VO alternation in the history of Latin, it will be shown that whether or not one controls for structural ambiguity is not a theory-internal choice, but that it has major empirical consequences. The conclusion is that quantitative results that emerge from a study that only takes into account syntactically non-ambiguous environments provide a more accurate characterization of the syntactic changes that took place during the evolution from Latin towards the (early) Romance languages.
Keywords: Latin, syntax, OV/VO; diachrony, structural ambiguity, word order
Published online: 29 April 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.169.09dan
References
Adams, James
1976a A typological approach to Latin word order. Indogermanische Forschungen 81: 70-100.Google Scholar
1976b The Text and Language of a Vulgar Latin Chronicle (Anonymus Valesianus II). London: Institute of Classical Studies.Google Scholar
1977 The Vulgar Latin of the Letters of Claudius Terentianus. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Álvarez Pedrosa Nuñez, Juan Antonio
1989 Estudio comparado del orden de palabras en inscripciones jurídicas arcaicas, griegas y latinas. Revista Española de Lingüística 18: 109-128.Google Scholar
Amacker, René
1989 Sur l'ordre des termes dans la proposition latine. In Subordination and other Topics in Latin [Studies in Language Companion Series 17], Gualtiero Calboli (ed.), 485-502. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bauer, Brigitte
1995 The Emergence and Development of SVO Patterning in Latin and French. Diachronic and Psycholinguistic Perspectives. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Bolkestein, A. Machtelt
1989 Parameters in the expression of embedded predications in Latin. In Subordination and Other Topics in Latin [Studies in Language Companion Series 17], Gualtiero Calboli (ed.), 3-35. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brunet, Etienne & Sylvie Mellet
n.d. Hyperbase 5.5. Logiciel hypertexte pour le traitement documentaire et statistique des corpus textuels. Base de littérature latine. Bases, Corpus & Langage (Université de Nice – Sophia Antipolis) & LASLA (Université de Liège).
Cabrillana, Concepción
1993 Posiciones relativas en la ordenación de constituyentes I: estudio de la posición de sujeto, objeto y verbo. Habis 24: 249-266.Google Scholar
1999 Type of text, pragmatic function and constituent order. A comparative study between the Mulomedicina Chironis and the Peregrinatio Egeriae . In Latin vulgaire - latin tardif V, Hubert Petersmann & Rudolf Kettemann (eds), 319-330. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo
1999 Adverbs and Functional Heads. A Cross-linguistic Perspective. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
2006 Restructuring and Functional Heads [The Cartography of Syntactic Structures 4]. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Danckaert, Lieven
2012 Latin Embedded Clauses. The Left Periphery [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 184]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Devine, Andrew & Stephens, Laurence
2006 Latin Word Order. Structured Meaning and Information. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Embick, David
2000 Features, syntax and categories in the Latin perfect. Linguistic Inquiry 31: 185-230. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Flobert, Pierre
1975 Les verbes déponents latins des origines à Charlemagne. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Franks, Steven & Lavine, James
2006 Case and word order in Lithuanian. Journal of Linguistics 42: 239-288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koll, Hans-Georg
1965 Zur Stellung des Verbs im spätantiken und frühmittelalterlichen Latein. Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 2: 241-272.Google Scholar
Ledgeway, Adam
2012 From Latin to Romance. Morphosyntactic Typology and Change. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marouzeau, Jules
1922-49 L'ordre des mots dans la phrase latine, 3 Vols. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Moreno Hernández, Antonio
1989 Tipología lingüística y orden de la palabras en el latín de Terencio. In Actas del VII congreso español de estudios clásicos, Vol. 1, 523-528. Madrid: Universidad Complutense.Google Scholar
Panchón Cabañeros, Federico
1986 Orden de palabras en latín (César, B. G. I; Cicerón Pro Milone). Studia Zamorensia 7: 213-229.Google Scholar
Pinkster, Harm
1990 Latin Syntax and Semantics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
1991 Evidence for SVO in Latin? In Latin and the Romance Languages in the Early Middle Ages, Roger Wright (ed.), 69-82. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Polo, Chiara
2004 Word Order between Morphology and Syntax. Padova: Unipress.Google Scholar
Ramat, Paolo
1984 Per una tipologia del latino pompeiano. In Linguistica tipologica, Paolo Ramat (ed.), 137-142. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Spevak, Olga
2010 Constituent Order in Classical Latin Prose. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Talavera Esteso, Francisco
1981 Aspectos vulgares de la Vetus Latina: análisis especial del orden de palabras en el libro de Rut. Analecta Malacitana 4: 211-227.Google Scholar
Zennaro, Luigi
2006 La sintassi dei verbi a ristrutturazione in Latino. PhD dissertation, Università di Venezia 'Ca' Foscari'.
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Haider, Hubert & Luka Szucsich
2022. Slavic languages are Type 3 languages: replies. Theoretical Linguistics 48:1-2 ► pp. 113 ff. DOI logo
Ponti, Edoardo Maria & Silvia Luraghi
2018. Non-configurationality in diachrony. Diachronica 35:3 ► pp. 367 ff. DOI logo
Ponti, Edoardo Maria & Silvia Luraghi
2020. Non-configurationality in diachrony. In Diachronic Treebanks for Historical Linguistics [Benjamins Current Topics, 113], ► pp. 70 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 november 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.