New Benjamins Book: Spevak - Constituent Order in Classical Latin Prose

[Paul Peranteau]

Constituent Order in Classical Latin Prose
  Olga Spevak  University of Toulouse

Studies in Language Companion Series 117

2010. xv, 318 pp.
Hardbound  978 90 272 0584 1 / EUR 105.00 / USD 158.00
e-Book – Not yet available  978 90 272 8851 6 / EUR 105.00 / USD 158.00

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.


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Table of contents

Preface  xiii–xiv
Abbreviations  xv–xvi
Introduction  1–12
Placement constraints and liberties in Latin constituent order  13–26
Pragmatic functions  27–114
Declarative sentences  115–194
Interrogative sentences  195–204
Imperative sentences  205–222
Noun phrases  223–282
Conclusion  283–286
References  287–298
Index locorum  299–302
Index rerum  303–304
Three commented texts  305–318




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