“Focus pronouns” in Old Latin reflexive constructions
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Rosemarie Lühr
Abstract
This paper deals with a Latin reflexivization strategy distinct from other reflexive constructions. It consists of first and second person pronouns which are used to emphasize the first and second person referents in Old Latin comedy by certain emphasizing elements like ‑met in egomet or ‑te in tūte. The form and function of these emphasizing personal pronouns has not been observed and described yet. Moreover, the grammatical, semantic and pragmatic status of this reflexivization strategy has hitherto been unknown. The elements ‑met and ‑te are likely to be derived from suffixes which have an identifying and emphasizing function similar to German selbst ‘self’. Reflexivization here obviously is connected to focalization, a typologically well-known relationship.
© by Akademie Verlag, Jena, Germany
Articles in the same Issue
- Preface
- Possessive expressions in Oscan and Umbrian
- “Focus pronouns” in Old Latin reflexive constructions
- The use of the dative with Latin compounds
- Zeroing in on Latin asyndesis
- Continuity and discontinuity in the semantics of the Latin preposition per: a cognitive hypothesis
- Word order in Latin locative constructions: a corpus study in Caesar’s De bello gallico
Articles in the same Issue
- Preface
- Possessive expressions in Oscan and Umbrian
- “Focus pronouns” in Old Latin reflexive constructions
- The use of the dative with Latin compounds
- Zeroing in on Latin asyndesis
- Continuity and discontinuity in the semantics of the Latin preposition per: a cognitive hypothesis
- Word order in Latin locative constructions: a corpus study in Caesar’s De bello gallico
