Towards a taxonomy of Latin cleft sentences

Abstract

Cleft sentences are a well-known structure in most of the languages of Europe: in many grammatical accounts they appear as a Focus-marking device, but in some cases they may also show additional functions. However, the issue of a Latin counterpart, if not a Latin ancestor, has seldom been addressed after Bengt Löfstedt's path-breaking article. Building on recent studies on information structure, a corpus study has been carried out, that demonstrates not only that Latin could mark an argument-focus using a cleft, but also that this sentence evolved by developing different informational values through grammaticalization.In this section, an overview is given of the theoretical framework adopted in the analysis of Latin cleft sentences. In particular, as the aim of this study is to provide an account of the different informative values of these sentences, particular attention will be given to the categories of information structure which are relevant for this analysis.Drawing on Lambrecht (1994), information structure is "[t]hat component of sentence grammar in which propositions as conceptual representations of states of affairs are paired with lexico-grammatical structures in accordance with the mental state of interlocutors who use and interpret these structures as units of information in given discourse contexts" (1994: 5). In other words, it can be regarded as a device which pairs "pragmatic information" (see Dik 1989: 10 ff.), which is conceptual in nature, with a specific linguistic encoding. There are three functional dimensions which are relevant to the analysis of information structure, namely, (a) presupposition and assertion, (b) the notion of activation and (c) the pragmatic relations Topic and Focus.Presupposition and assertion are categories pertaining to propositions. Without going too deep into a taxonomy of the different subtypes of presupposition such as those addressed in Lambrecht (

De las copulativas identificativas a las construcciones hendidas

“…Si se acepta que las hendidas pueden presentar diferentes focos, no resultará problemático aceptar también que estas construcciones se documentan ya en latín (Dufter 2008: 1767-1768, Goria 2013: 161-167, Löfstedt 1966) y que del latín pasan a las lenguas románicas. Las hendidas del latín y de las lenguas románicas medievales, sin embargo, presentan importantes diferencias sintácticas y funcionales respecto a las hendidas actuales, como trataremos de mostrar a continuación.…”