The lexicographical approach to remittere in the Thesaurus linguae Latinae (compared with dimittere and mittere)
-
Josine Schrickx
Abstract
One problem of all existing Latin dictionaries is that the text corpus was too limited to give a comprehensive semantic picture of a lemma. In the Thesaurus linguae Latinae (TLL) the database is much more extensive: the corpus of the TLL consists of all surviving texts up to ca. 600 CE. For the time up to ca. 200 CE all evidence is taken into account, for the time after that a selection. Here, using the recently written article remitto, it is shown how an article is constructed and what the criteria of the groups are. Thus, this paper gives guidance on how to interpret a TLL article. It also compares remitto, published in 2021, with the simplex mitto, published in 1957, and with dimitto, published in 1913. It turns out that the lemma remittere has three main groups that correspond exactly to the three main groups of mittere: ‘send’, ‘throw’ and ‘let go’. The criteria of these three main groups can be described as follows: ‘command or cause a movement’ (‘send’), ‘perform a movement action’ (‘throw’) and ‘allow a movement’ (‘let go’). In remittere we accordingly find: ‘to send back’, ‘to throw back’, and ‘to let go (back)’. This last meaning is the largest and overlaps with dimittere. However, remittere can also mean ‘to relax’, which we do not see in the earlier article dimitto.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to my colleagues Massimo Cè, Marijke Ottink and Friedrich Spoth for their useful comments on earlier versions of this article, and Johann Ramminger as co-writer of the TLL article remitto.
Appendix: Disposition of remitto (TLL vol. XI 2 p. 1038, 23–1052, 1)
actio remittendi fit:
moveri sinendo, dimittendo:
describitur motus localis:
missum faciendo, ab aliqua re resolvendo.
relaxando, sc. res antea tentas.
emittendo.
relinquendo.
describitur motus non localis; remissio fit:
(con)cedendo, sc. non retinendo, non accipiendo:
possessiones proprias sim.:
quae alteri committuntur.
quae quolibet modo deponuntur, abiciuntur.
res ab altero oblatas, sc. quae recusantur.
omittendo:
actiones.
verba.
relaxando:
ferendo, patiendo sim.:
condonando, non puniendo facta:
crimen, culpam.
peccata.
permittendo actionem.
admittendo affirmationem.
tollendo, demendo, prohibendo, sc. mala aliorum:
quaelibet incommoda.
onera, operas.
multam, poenam.
ab aliqua re solvendo, in libertatem mittendo.
relinquendo:
non demendo.
morte linquendo.
deserendo.
moveri iubendo vel curando:
usu communi remittitur aliquis (aliquid):
eo, ubi antea fuit.
in compensatione.
iterum.
usu speciali animantes vel res referuntur eo, ubi aliquid certum statui possit.
iaciendo:
remittitur vel motu contrario vel eo, unde ventum est:
varia repercutiendo.
res iactas rursus iaculando.
remittitur retro vel post tergum.
remittitur obviam.
References
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© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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- The complementary distribution between nē and nōn revisited: a semantic approach to wish and result clauses
- Semantic analysis and frequency effects of conceptual metaphors of emotions in Latin. From a corpus-based approach to a dictionary of Latin metaphors
- Vowel deletion before sibilant-stop clusters in Latin: issues of syllabification, lexicon and diachrony
- The lexicographical approach to remittere in the Thesaurus linguae Latinae (compared with dimittere and mittere)
- Word-final -s in Ennius’ Annales: a sociolinguistic approach
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- The complementary distribution between nē and nōn revisited: a semantic approach to wish and result clauses
- Semantic analysis and frequency effects of conceptual metaphors of emotions in Latin. From a corpus-based approach to a dictionary of Latin metaphors
- Vowel deletion before sibilant-stop clusters in Latin: issues of syllabification, lexicon and diachrony
- The lexicographical approach to remittere in the Thesaurus linguae Latinae (compared with dimittere and mittere)
- Word-final -s in Ennius’ Annales: a sociolinguistic approach
