Between Between semantics semantics and and syntax syntax : : spatial spatial verbs verbs and and prepositions prepositions in Latin in Latin Linda Meini and Barbara McGillivray University of Pisa, Department of Linguistics Pisa, Space in Language, October 9 2009
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BetweenBetween semanticssemantics and and syntaxsyntax::spatialspatial verbsverbs and and prepositionsprepositions
in Latinin Latin
Linda Meini and Barbara McGillivrayUniversity of Pisa, Department of Linguistics
1. ‘Chryseis came out from the sea-crosser ship’2. ‘Chryseis disembarked from the sea-crosser ship’
• local or temporal notions• free movement in the sentence• undifferentiated functions
Traditional ReconstructionTraditional Reconstruction
Basic structure: NP + X + V*flumen ad eo ‘I go to the river’
preverbs NP + [X + V]flumen adeo
postpositions [NP + X] + V• adverbial accompaniment to reinforcethe information given by the cases
• govern the noun by specifying its case
prepositions [X + NP]PP + Vad flumen eo
An An ‘‘all but clear evolutionall but clear evolution’’
“We may thus hypothesize a fluid situation, where adpositions from different sources evolve at different rates and where each kind ‘grammaticalizes on its own, following
its own diachronic trajectory that may or may not be determined by clausal (OV vs. VO) syntax’ (Givón).”
“The evolution is actually all but linear … Basically, the overall picture of Latin where protracted and overlapping transitional
stages generate internal and typological inconsistencies is due to the coexistence and mixing of different patterns, and to the
different rate at which old structure disappear.”(Magni, 2008)
Relics of Adpositions FreedomRelics of Adpositions Freedom
Festo: sub vos placo (= supplico vos) ‘I implore you’
Plautus: distraxissent disque tulissent ‘they would have tornme in pieces and rent me asunder’
loca haec circiter excidit mi ‘I dropped it about this spot’
Cicero: contraque legem ‘and against the law’
Caesar: quos inter controversia esset ‘those between whom thedispute was’
Pliny: Gades usque pervectum ‘after sailing as far as Gades’
fixed expressions: mecum, tecum ... ‘with me, with you ...’quoad ‘as far as’quocirca ‘wherefore’
• author and preposition are not independent (p<0.01)• medium-sized association
ConclusionsConclusions
ConclusionsConclusions
1) Computational methods
• Small size of accessible corpora affected ourstudy about a marginal phenomenon
prose writers: Caesar, Cicero, Sallust, Petronius
• Great advantage: computational and statisticalanalyses in short time
• Outcomes showing a clear general trend, consistent with our previous hypothesis
ConclusionsConclusions
2) Linguistic results
• The construction preposition.ABSENT issignificantly:
° less frequent diachronically in late Latin authors,anticipating Romance outcomes
° more frequent synchronically in poets, who makeuse of archaisms and precious language
• No claims about texts with hints of spokenLatin < low frequencies for Petronius
ConclusionsConclusions
• Local complements can be encoded without spatial prepositions even when prepositions are obligatory:° Lat.: domum eo, domi sum° Eng.: I go home, I am home° It. L2: learners (even advanced) skip more
frequently spatial prepositions (Bernini, Meini)
• accuracy of the “distributed spatial semantics”theory (Sinha and Kuteva)
• spatial domain is basic → languages can use lesslinguistic material
ReferencesReferences
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di Linguistica e Letterature Comparate», Università di Bergamo, 3.Bertocci, D. (2009), Tipi di preverbazione in latino. La funzionalità aspettuale, talk presented
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McGillivray, B. and Passarotti, M. (2009), The Development of the Index ThomisticusTreebank Valency Lexicon, Proceedings of the LaTeCH-SHELT&R.
Meini, L. (2009), Dimensioni dello spazio nelle preposizioni. Uno studio empirico sull’italiano L2, Pisa, PLUS: Pisa University Press.
Passarotti, M. and Busa, R. (2007), Una Dependency Treebank come proposta per l’IndexThomisticus, XII International Congress of the Lessico Intellettuale Europeo e Storia delle Idee, Roma.
Romagno, D. (2003), Azionalità e transitività: il caso dei preverbi latini, «AGI» 88, 2.Sinha, C. and Kuteva, T. (1995), Distributed Spatial Semantic, «Nordic Journal of Linguistics» 18.