Startseite Altertumswissenschaften & Ägyptologie On the use of the ablative of the gerund and the nominative of the present participle in Latin technical literature
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On the use of the ablative of the gerund and the nominative of the present participle in Latin technical literature

  • Giovanbattista Galdi und Jasper Vangaever
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Volume II Clause and Discourse
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Volume II Clause and Discourse

Abstract

In Latin, the gerund and the present participle often function as the predicate of an adjunct clause. In Late Latin, the frequency of such clauses is hypothesized to increase with the ablative of the gerund and to decrease with the nominative of the present participle. This evolution leads to the “gradual replacement of the present participle by the gerund” (Pinkster 2015: 549), whereby the former is ousted from its verbal function and confined to a purely adjectival role. This process is triggered by the “semantic bleaching” of the gerund, whose original manner/instrumental value gradually “weakens” into the default value of the present participle, viz. a temporal one. This paper aims to investigate the functional competition between the two clause types in a corpus of technical texts between the 2nd c. BC and the 6th c. AD. We show that the semantic bleaching of the gerund is not significant in our corpus and hence does not confirm its functional competition with the present participle. We argue that the two clause types have different semantic and pragmatic properties and that these differences remain stable over time.

Abstract

In Latin, the gerund and the present participle often function as the predicate of an adjunct clause. In Late Latin, the frequency of such clauses is hypothesized to increase with the ablative of the gerund and to decrease with the nominative of the present participle. This evolution leads to the “gradual replacement of the present participle by the gerund” (Pinkster 2015: 549), whereby the former is ousted from its verbal function and confined to a purely adjectival role. This process is triggered by the “semantic bleaching” of the gerund, whose original manner/instrumental value gradually “weakens” into the default value of the present participle, viz. a temporal one. This paper aims to investigate the functional competition between the two clause types in a corpus of technical texts between the 2nd c. BC and the 6th c. AD. We show that the semantic bleaching of the gerund is not significant in our corpus and hence does not confirm its functional competition with the present participle. We argue that the two clause types have different semantic and pragmatic properties and that these differences remain stable over time.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Clause
  5. Constructions
  6. Linguistic theory in daily lexicographical practice: dealing with arguments and satellites in the entries of regnare and nectere in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae 1
  7. The expression of knowledge in Latin: cognosco, nosco, scio, nescio and ignoro 20
  8. Los verbos latinos timeo y metuo: sintaxis, semántica y pragmática 48
  9. Potest + passive infinitives: auxiliary or impersonal verb? 67
  10. Ruinam dare : les complexités d’une construction latine à verbe support 79
  11. On the use of the ablative of the gerund and the nominative of the present participle in Latin technical literature 96
  12. Praedicativum and subject complement: a question revisited in light of the Latin verb sto 116
  13. Der lateinische Dativ: neue Wege in Transitivität und funktionaler Semantik 134
  14. Between syntax and magic: some peculiarities of nominal syntax in Latin curse tablets 155
  15. Les complétives en quoniam : étude à partir du latin biblique 174
  16. Semantics
  17. Animacy in Latin: explaining some peripheral phenomena 199
  18. Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres: Sapir’s typology and different perspectives on totality 219
  19. General extenders in Latin 241
  20. Les parcours sémantiques vers l’adversatif : une approche typologique des langues anciennes 259
  21. The diffraction of iam: contextual effects in interpretation 280
  22. Le système latin de la déixis et de l’endophore : l’évolution linguistique chez Sénèque 296
  23. Discourse
  24. Tense and discourse
  25. On the expression of relative time in Latin narrations 319
  26. Progression thématique et types de séquences chez quelques historiens romains 339
  27. Engaging the audience: an intersubjectivity approach to the historic present tense in Latin 351
  28. ‘I hereby present the use of the Latin first-person perfect indicative as a performative’ 374
  29. Politeness and identity
  30. Expressing happiness as a manifestation of positive politeness in Roman comedy 393
  31. Impoliteness in Plautus’ comedies 413
  32. How to assess politeness in response to impoliteness: some examples from Latin comedy 431
  33. Cicero vs. Mark Antony: identity construction and ingroup/outgroup formation in Philippics One and Three 448
  34. Ego sum Amphitruo: Selbstidentifikation in der römischen Komödie 464
  35. Index 479
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110678222-006

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Clause
  5. Constructions
  6. Linguistic theory in daily lexicographical practice: dealing with arguments and satellites in the entries of regnare and nectere in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae 1
  7. The expression of knowledge in Latin: cognosco, nosco, scio, nescio and ignoro 20
  8. Los verbos latinos timeo y metuo: sintaxis, semántica y pragmática 48
  9. Potest + passive infinitives: auxiliary or impersonal verb? 67
  10. Ruinam dare : les complexités d’une construction latine à verbe support 79
  11. On the use of the ablative of the gerund and the nominative of the present participle in Latin technical literature 96
  12. Praedicativum and subject complement: a question revisited in light of the Latin verb sto 116
  13. Der lateinische Dativ: neue Wege in Transitivität und funktionaler Semantik 134
  14. Between syntax and magic: some peculiarities of nominal syntax in Latin curse tablets 155
  15. Les complétives en quoniam : étude à partir du latin biblique 174
  16. Semantics
  17. Animacy in Latin: explaining some peripheral phenomena 199
  18. Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres: Sapir’s typology and different perspectives on totality 219
  19. General extenders in Latin 241
  20. Les parcours sémantiques vers l’adversatif : une approche typologique des langues anciennes 259
  21. The diffraction of iam: contextual effects in interpretation 280
  22. Le système latin de la déixis et de l’endophore : l’évolution linguistique chez Sénèque 296
  23. Discourse
  24. Tense and discourse
  25. On the expression of relative time in Latin narrations 319
  26. Progression thématique et types de séquences chez quelques historiens romains 339
  27. Engaging the audience: an intersubjectivity approach to the historic present tense in Latin 351
  28. ‘I hereby present the use of the Latin first-person perfect indicative as a performative’ 374
  29. Politeness and identity
  30. Expressing happiness as a manifestation of positive politeness in Roman comedy 393
  31. Impoliteness in Plautus’ comedies 413
  32. How to assess politeness in response to impoliteness: some examples from Latin comedy 431
  33. Cicero vs. Mark Antony: identity construction and ingroup/outgroup formation in Philippics One and Three 448
  34. Ego sum Amphitruo: Selbstidentifikation in der römischen Komödie 464
  35. Index 479
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Heruntergeladen am 21.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110678222-006/html
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