This article deals with the dominant participle constructions of the prepositional type (ab urbe condita), to which little attention has been paid thus far. They are sometimes considered counterparts of prepositional phrases with an elided participle or of brachylogical expressions. It focuses on the temporal prepositions ante and post, which are the most frequent with dominant participles. For the question of the ellipsis of the participle, it is important to take into consideration the semantic type of the noun which forms part of the dominant participle construction. Nouns with a temporal meaning such as hiems can be used in the dominant participle construction (ante hiemem exactam) as well as alone without a participle (post hiemem). There are also other groups of names that admit a temporal use without a participle. As these cases are semantically motivated, the idea of “omission” of the participle is not justified. The contribution of the participle used in these participial clauses is to make the state of affairs in which the noun is involved explicit.
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