The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Copula in Latin: on a Textual Problem in Cicero’s Oration „In Defence of Publius Sestius”

• Authors: Jarosław Jakielaszek
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

A textual problem from Cicero’s oration In defence of Publius Sestius is discussed in order to determine syntactic and semantic consequences of editorial choices. The discussion involves semantic and syntactic properties of Latin past participles within a minimalist setting. A detailed investigation of the passage indicates that a textual variant not accepted by most editors is to be preferred.

Keywords

EN

Latin language; syntax; minimalist; natural language semantics; textual criticism; Cicero; Marcus Tullius

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Research in Language
• Year: 2007
• Volume: 5
• Pages: 81-107

Dates

published

2007-12-18

Contributors

author

Jarosław Jakielaszek

• University of Warsaw

References

• M. Tullius Cicero, The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
• M. Tullius Cicero, The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
• M. Tullius Cicero, M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes, eds. A. C. Clark and W. Peterson Oxford: Oxord University Press, 1905–1918.
• M. Tullius Cicero, Cum senatui gratias egit, Cum populo gratias egit, De domo sua, De haruspicum responsis,. ed. T. Maslowski, Teubner, Leipzig 1981.
• M. Tullius Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum, ed. R. Reynolds. Oxford: Oxord University Press, 1998.
• M. Tullius Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes. ed. M. Pohlenz. Teubner, Leipzig 1918.
• Alexiadou, A., M. Rathert, and A. von Stechow (eds.) 2003. Perfect Explorations. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
• Anagnostopoulou, E. 2003. ‘‘Participles and voice’’. In: Alexiadou et al. (eds), 1–36
• Bhatt, R. 1998. ‘‘Obligation and Possession’’. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 32, 21–40.
• Culicover, P. W., T. Wasow, and A. Akmajian (eds.). 1977. Formal Syntax. New York: Academic Press.
• Déchaine, R.-M. 1993. Predicates Across Categories: Towards a Category-Neutral Syntax. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• Embick, D. 2004. ‘‘On the Structure of Resultative Participles in English’’. Linguistic Inquiry 35, 355–392.
• Ernout, A. and F. Thomas. 1964. Syntaxe Latine. Paris: Klincksieck.
• Freidin, R. 1975. ‘‘The Analysis of Passives’’. Language 51, 385–405.
• Horvath, J. and T. Siloni. 2005. Adjectival Passives: Active Lexicon. Ms., Tel Aviv University.
• Gueron J. and J. Lecarme (eds). 2004. The Syntax of Time. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press
• Kenstowicz, M. (ed.). 2001. Ken Hale: A life in language. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press
• Klein, W. 1994. Time in Language. London, New York: Routledge.
• Kratzer, A. 1998. ‘‘More Structural Analogies between Pronouns and Tenses’’. In: Strolovitch D. and A. Lawson (eds), 92–110
• Kühner, R. and C. Stegmann. 1912. Ausführliche Grammatik der lateinischen Sprache, Bd. 2.1. Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung.
• Lebreton, J. 1901. Études sur la langue et la grammaire de Cicéron. Paris: Librairie Hachette.
• Madvig, J. N. 1842. Opuscula academica altera. Hauniae: typis Schultzianis
• May, J. M. (ed). 2002. Companion to Cicero. Oratory and Rhetoric. Leiden/Boston/Köln: Brill.
• Menge, H. 2000. Lehrbuch der lateinischen Syntax und Semantik. Völlig neu bearbeitet von Thorsten Burkard und Markus Schauer. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
• Michael C. A. 2003. The Case for the Prosecution in the Ciceronian Era. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
• Miller, D. G. 2000. ‘‘Gerund and Gerundive in Latin’’. Diachronica 17, 293–349.
• Partee, B. 1977. ‘‘John is Easy to Please’’. In: Zampolli A. (ed.), 281–312.
• Paslawska, A. and A. von Stechow. 2003. ‘‘Perfect Readings in Russian’’. In: Alexiadou et al. (eds): 307–362.
• Pesetsky, D. and E. Torrego. 2001. ‘‘T-to-C Movement: causes and consequences.’’ In: Kenstowicz M. (ed.), 355–426.
• Pesetsky, D. and E. Torrego. 2004a. ‘‘Tense, Case, and the Nature of Syntactic Categories’’. In: Gueron J. and J. Lecarme (eds.), 495–538
• Pesetsky, D. and E. Torrego. 2004b. The Syntax of Valuation and the Interpretability of Features. Ms., MIT and Boston University
• Powell, J. and J. Paterson. 2004. Cicero the Advocate. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Pylkkänen, L. 2002. Introducing arguments. Ph.D. Thesis. Cambridge, MA.: MIT.
• Rothstein, S. 1999. ‘‘Fine-Grained Structure in the Eventuality Domain: the Semantics of Predicative Adjective Phrases and Be’’. Natural Language Semantics 7, 347–420.
• Strolovitch, D. and A. Lawson (eds). 1998. Proceedings of SALT VIII. GLSA Amherst.
• von Stechow, A. 1995. On the Proper Treatment of Tense. Ms., Universität Tübingen.
• von Stechow, A. 1998. German Participles II in Distributed Morphology. Ms., Universität Tübingen.
• von Stechow, A. 2001. The Janus Face of Aspect. Ms., Universität Tübingen.
• Wasow, T. 1977. ‘‘Transformations and the Lexicon.’’ In: Culicover et al. (eds), 327–360.
• Zampolli, A. (ed.). 1977. Linguistic Structures Processing. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10015-007-0003-5