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The syntax of the Latin presentative adverb ecce: Relation to focus phrase

  • Camilo Andrés Bonilla Carvajal EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: October 15, 2020
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Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of the variables that determine the syntactic distribution of ecce, a presentative adverb in Latin. Traditionally, grammarians have simply regarded ecce as an adverb (similar to here) or an interjection (similar to hey!) but this lexicographic view misses important syntactic phenomena. For example, adverbs in Latin can follow subjects, but ecce cannot. Interjections can be used as single words to express surprise, but ecce, as a presentative, is never used in the absence of a following determiner phrase (DP). Two corpora of almost seven million Latin words ranging from ∼200 BCE to 1800 CE were analyzed for instances of ecce. Adopting a cartographic approach, results suggest that ecce, as a presentative, is base-generated in the head of a Focus phrase (FocP) projection in the matrix clause. This is confirmed through its consistent precedence of subjects, scope over left-dislocated constituents in [Spec, FocP], and its ungrammaticality in the embedded domain. This study brings to light several theoretical implications for the under-studied category of presentatives by showing how discourse and hierarchical properties license the use of ecce and restrict its contexts of use.


Corresponding author: Camilo Andrés Bonilla Carvajal, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, Room 7407, New York, NY 10016, USA, E-mail:

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of Jason Kandybowicz for valuable insight and guidance on earlier versions of this paper, as well as one anonymous reviewer. This work was also enriched by fruitful discussions when I presented it at the 20th International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics at the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 2019.

Appendix

Abbreviation of Latin authors and texts cited in this work

Alcuin.

Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus

Cuc.

Versus de Cuculo

August.

Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis

Confess.

Confessiones

Caes.

C. Julius Caesar

Gal.

De Bello Gallico

Cic.

M. Tullius Cicero

Att.

Epistulae ad Atticum

Caec.

For Aulus Caecina

Clue.

Pro Cluentio

Fronto.

M. Cornelius Fronto

Ad M. Caes.

Ad M. Caesarem et Invicem

Gaius.

Gaius

Inst.

Institutiones

Ioann

Sanctus Ioannes, Evangelista

Evangelium secundum Ioannem

Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio.

Just.

Iustinianus

Dig.

Digesta Iustiniani

Ov.

P. Ovidius Naso

Met.

Metamorphoseon

Petr.

G. Petronius Arbiter

Sat.

Satyricon

Plaut.

T. Maccius Plautus

Amph.

Amphitryon

Asin.

Asinaria

Epid.

Epidicus

Merc.

Mercator

Sen.

L. Annaeus Seneca

Herc. Oet.

Hercules Oetaeus

Octav.

Octavia

Stat.

P. Papinius Statius

Theb.

Thebaidos

Teren.

P. Terentius Afer

Heaut.

Heautontimorumenos

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