Volume 13, Issue 2

Latin and Old French exhibit a fairly similar range of constructions emphasizing the Topic: Topicalizations and Left-Dislocations. Our aim is to investigate the hypothesis of a continuity from Latin to Romance languages. In this context we look into the data provided by the Vulgate. Indeed Jerome's choices in his translation of the Biblical texts reveal the level of vitality of each construction. Actually Jerome chooses Topicalizations rather than Left-Dislocations, although Left-Dislocations were the usual way of emphasizing Topics in Biblical Hebrew. After a summary of Archaic and Classical Latin constructions, we compare Jerome's strategies on the one hand with the data from Vetus Latina, on the other hand with some contemporary texts, such as Augustine's Sermons and Itinerarium Egeriae . In conclusion, we try to summarize continuities and discontinuities in diachronic change regarding the ways of emphasizing Topics.

In the present paper the notion of register is discussed in some detail. The claim that the register is determined by the intersection of what is actually taking place, who is taking part, and what part the language is playing shows some shortcomings. A new, slightly different definition of register is proposed, where also the notion of communicative intention plays a crucial role. The new definition of register will be illustrated in the present paper with examples concerning the use of the Greek language, the use of colloquial speech, and the use of archaisms in Latin.

The Latin quantifier omnis has received and continues to receive numerous linguistic treatments, both from a synchronic and a diachronic perspective. The present contribution will neither give a new etymology for omnis nor summarize comprehensively the substantial body of scholarship pertaining to this quantifier, but is primarily concerned with the specific semantic questions arising from the etymological connection of omnis with Lat. ops , which can be considered as the present communis opinio . Does the prehistory of omnis illustrate a semantic change ‘( in ) abundance ’ 〉 ‘ whole ’ 〉 ‘ all ’? This paper also gives an overview of the Sabellic comparanda of omnis (Oscan úmbn[ , Paelignian omnitu ). The historical sources of other Latin quantifying pronouns and adjectives, especially tōtus and * sollos (cf. sollemnis ), are briefly discussed.

The phenomenon of intensification – intended as the strategy of scaling upwards or downwards the semantic content of linguistic entities belonging to different word classes (i.e., not only adjectives but also nouns and verbs) – has received a great deal of attention from both a synchronic and a diachronic point of view. This paper investigates intensification of Latin nouns in the light of recent research in theoretical linguistics on this topic, by giving a preliminary account of some issues related to the Latin state of affairs. I will examine the strategies employed to intensify nouns in some Plautus' and Cicero's texts, by focusing on the use of adverbs as intensifiers expressing a high degree or the highest degree. Moreover, it will be shown that the approach followed in this paper, based on the individuation of the degree meaning of adjectives, may cast new light on their use as nominal intensifiers in the Latin language. It will be further suggested that in Latin nouns may be strengthened by intensifiers independently of their being gradable or not, as happens in modern languages.

Semantic and pragmatic values of Latin coordinators will be analyzed in comparison with other ancient languages under the following conditions: (a) in an asymmetrical sequence, where they may express temporal relations (‘and then’) or causal relations (‘and so’); (b) in dialogic verbal interaction in their cognitive effects and their informational and rhetorical contributions; (c) with respect to their position and their role in the discourse organization; (d) in the sentence- or utterance-initial position, as discourse markers for repetition, reformulation, expressive intensity, indignation, or denial of an expectation, depending on the different interpretive effects arising from different contexts. Initial position provides a privileged position for expressions associated with speakers' intervention, emotions, mental reservations, and disagreement. Coordinators thus give rise to conversational implicatures (Grice 1975), pragmatically determined by each context. The initial position of coordinators is thus of decisive importance from the point of view of multifunctionality and discursive interchange.

It is usually assumed that Latin parts of speech cannot be properly applied to other languages, especially outside the Indo-European domain. We will see, however, that the traditional distinction into eight parts of speech is established only in the late period of the classical school of grammar, while originally parts of speech varied in number and in type according to different grammarians, as well as to different periods and genres. Comparisons will be drawn on the one hand with parts of speech in the Greek and Indian tradition, and on the other with genetically unrelated languages where parts of speech – notably adjectives and adverbs – are scarcely grammaticalized. This may be revealing of the manner in which the ancients used to categorize their language.