Abstract
Longstanding debate persists regarding the classification of Latin ecce as word class. While some scholars regard it as a particle or demonstrative, others characterize it as an interjection. This study examines the implications of these approaches and analyzes the behavior of ecce in Archaic Latin according to different grammatical and semantic criteria. The analysis confirms that ecce functions primarily as a predicative demonstrative. Furthermore, it contends that ecce can be specifically categorized as a presentative predicative demonstrative. These results suggest that the interjectional use of this demonstrative must have arisen only secondarily.
Funding source: FONDECYT project, National Research and Development Agency
Award Identifier / Grant number: 1210321
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the journal’s editors and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. We also thank Berta González Saavedra and Annamaria Bartolotta for carefully reading previous versions of the paper. Conclusions and mistakes are our own.
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Research funding: The research presented in this article was part of the FONDECYT project #1210321, funded by the National Research and Development Agency (ANID).
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Foreword
- Risposta alla recensione di Elena Spangenberg Yanes alla mia edizione 2020 della Rhetorica ad Herennium
- Seconda risposta alla Spangenberg
- Dormivit et resurgit. A language-ecology approach to the diachrony of the Latin ingressive perfect
- Nisi paria non pugnant: argument structure alternations with lexical reciprocal verbs in Latin
- The synchrony and diachrony of example markers in Latin
- Ecce in Archaic Latin: interjection or demonstrative?
- (H)ariuga/(h)aruiga: an etymological research
- Discontinuity of the noun phrase in Roman statutes from the Republican period
- Qui pro quo in Plautus’ grammar
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Foreword
- Risposta alla recensione di Elena Spangenberg Yanes alla mia edizione 2020 della Rhetorica ad Herennium
- Seconda risposta alla Spangenberg
- Dormivit et resurgit. A language-ecology approach to the diachrony of the Latin ingressive perfect
- Nisi paria non pugnant: argument structure alternations with lexical reciprocal verbs in Latin
- The synchrony and diachrony of example markers in Latin
- Ecce in Archaic Latin: interjection or demonstrative?
- (H)ariuga/(h)aruiga: an etymological research
- Discontinuity of the noun phrase in Roman statutes from the Republican period
- Qui pro quo in Plautus’ grammar