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The Early Latin Verb System: Archaic Forms in Plautus, Terence, and Beyond

Online ISBN:
9780191706141
Print ISBN:
9780199209026
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Early Latin Verb System: Archaic Forms in Plautus, Terence, and Beyond

Wolfgang David Cirilo de Melo
Wolfgang David Cirilo de Melo
Post-doctoral research fellow at All Souls, University of Oxford
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Published online:
1 January 2010
Published in print:
27 September 2007
Online ISBN:
9780191706141
Print ISBN:
9780199209026
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Early Latin has archaic futures like faxō ‘I shall do’, archaic subjunctives like faxim I may do’, duim ‘I may give’, or attigās ‘you may touch’, and archaic infinitives like impetrāssere ‘to achieve’. These forms are already quite rare in Plautus; a generation later, in Terence, they are almost non-existent. This study focuses on such forms from a synchronic perspective. It examines their meaning, distribution over clause types, register, and productivity. In order to reach reliable conclusions, the book looks at the usage of ‘regular’ futures, subjunctives, and infinitives in the early period. Thus, morphosyntactic phenomena such as the sequence of tenses and the use of subjunctives in prohibitions are examined and compared with classical practice. The work contains diachronic elements as well. Not only does it discuss the reconstruction of elements of the Proto-Italic and Proto-Indo-European verb systems, but it also shows the patterns by which archaic forms were lost in classical and later Latin.

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