Constituent order in classical Latin prose / / Olga Spevak

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910139503203321
• Autore: Spevak Olga
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Amsterdam ; ; Philadelphia, : J. Benjamins, c2010
• ISBN: 1-282-55870-6; 9786612558702; 90-272-8851-8
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (336 p.)
• Collana: Studies in language companion series ; ; .117
• Disciplina: 475
• Soggetti: Latin language - Word order; Latin language - Semantics
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: The traditional approach -- The typological approach -- The generative approach -- Pragmatic approaches -- Other aspects of Latin constituent order -- Aim and methodology of this study.
• Sommario/riassunto: Latin is a language with variable (so-called 'free') word order. Constituent Order in Classical Latin Prose (Caesar, Cicero, and Sallust) presents the first systematic description of its constituent order from a pragmatic point of view. Apart from general characteristics of Latin constituent order, it discusses the ordering of the verb and its arguments in declarative, interrogative, and imperative sentences, as well as the ordering within noun phrases. It shows that the relationship of a constituent with its surrounding context and the communicative intention of the writer are the most reliable predictors of the order of constituents in a sentence or noun phrase. It differs from recent studies of Latin word order in its scope, its theoretical approach, and its attention to contextual information. The book is intended both for Latinists and for linguists working in the fields of the Romance languages and language typology.