The Early Latin Verb System: Archaic Forms in Plautus, Terence, and Beyond (Oxford Classical Monographs)

432 Pages·2007·2.08 MB·English

by  Wolfgang David Cirilo de Melo

OXFORD CLASSICAL MONOGRAPHS
PublishedunderthesupervisionofaCommitteeofthe
FacultyofClassicsintheUniversityofOxford
The aim of the Oxford Classical Monograph series (which replaces
the Oxford Classical and Philosophical Monographs) is to publish
booksbasedonthebestthesesonGreekandLatinliterature,ancient
history, and ancient philosophy examined by the Faculty Board of
Classics.
The Early Latin
Verb System
Archaic Forms in Plautus, Terence,
and Beyond
WOLFGANG DAVID CIRILO DE MELO
1
3
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Preface
TbookbeganasanessayIwroteasanM.Phil.studentatOxford.
Itdealtwithverbformslikefaxo¯andendedwiththestatementthata
numberofproblemsremain.Theessaywassubsequentlyturnedinto
an M.Phil. thesis, and the M.Phil. into a D.Phil. (de Melo 2004b).
Now, a few years after the original essay, there are still a number of
remaining problems. However, at some stage one has to stop and
moveon.
MovingonwasmadeeasierbythefactthatIthinkIhavereached
conclusions which are of interest to various groups of readers. I
set out to write this book because I found the treatment of extra-
paradigmatic verb forms in manuals and scholarly articles deeply
unsatisfactory. Such forms, for instance faxo¯, faxim, impetra¯ssere,
duim,orattiga¯s,areattheheartofthebook,whichprovidestheirfirst
comprehensive treatment both synchronically and diachronically. I
have always held the view that these forms can only be understood
if we compare their usage with that of the ‘standard’ forms. Since
not even these ‘standard’ forms had been given sufficient attention
in the literature, I decided to discuss aspects of their use in the first
part of my book. As I am comparing archaic usage with classical
usagethroughoutthisfirstpart,Ihopethatitwillbeofinterestnot
onlytothoseworkingonArchaicLatintexts,butalsotoscholarsof
ClassicalLatin.Inthesecondpart,Idealwiththeextra-paradigmatic
verbformsfoundinArchaicLatin.Iexaminetheirfrequency,register,
temporalandaspectualfunctions,anddistributionoverthevarious
clausetypes.Thissecondpartoughttobeusefulespeciallyforthose
working on Archaic Latin, whether they are more interested in lan-
guageorinliterature.Thethirdpartofthebooklooksattheorigins
of the extra-paradigmatic forms and their survival in the classical
andpost-classicallanguage.Assuch,itcouldhelphistoricallinguists
and scholars of Latin literature; the former might be particularly
interestedintheProto-ItalicandIndo-Europeanoriginsoftheforms,
while the latter will probably want to know what to make of such
archaicformswhentheyturnupinlatetexts.
viii Preface
Numerouspeoplehavehelpedmetoimprovethebook.Mytheses
werejointlysupervisedbytwotruescholars,JohnPenneyandAnna
Morpurgo Davies. Both of them gave me generously of their time,
savedmefromsmallandgreaterrors,andencouragedmewhenever
theburdenofwritingmydissertationsseemedoverwhelming.Iowe
themfarmorethanIcanexpressinthesefewwords.Specialthanks
areduetoGregKochanski.Heexplainedtomeanumberofstatistical
techniquesandtheiruseswithgreatpatience.PeterBrownanswered
mylast-minutequestionsonPlautinemetre.DonaldRussellwasnot
directlyinvolvedinthisbook,butgavemeabetterunderstandingof
metreandstylebyteachingmehowtowriteLatinandGreekverse.
Hiskindnessandcalmnesstogetherwithhisimmenselearningmade
himmygreatexampleduringmyyearsatOxford.TobiasReinhardt
gavemetheopportunitytoworkforSomervilleCollegeand,whenI
was too busy writing, even helped me to look for jobs. I was lucky
enough to be examined by two of the world’s greatest experts on
Latin,HarmPinksterandJamesAdams.Bothofthemsuggestedways
how I could improve my thesis. James Adams also helped me very
generouslywhenIwasturningthethesisintoabook.Withouthim,
the book would never have become what it is; on many occasions,
his critical acumen and sound judgement prevented me from going
astray.EnidBarkergavemeusefulcommentsonlayoutandpresen-
tation.LeofrancHolford-Strevenswentthroughtheentiretypescript
and discussed various issues with me, from layout to matters of
content.RolandoFerrihelpedmewithregisterandpoliteness.Peter
Kruschwitzgavemematerialontheancientgrammarians’treatment
of metre. Finally, Östen Dahl, Lyle Campbell, and Scott DeLancey
discussedAcIconstructionswithme.
If it were customary to express one’s gratitude towards scholars
who died before our time, I should thank Gonzalez Lodge. In this
book, I occasionally point out one or the other mistake he made.
Nevertheless,itisfairtosaythatIcouldnothavewrittenitwithout
hismonumentalLexiconPlautinum.
I gratefully acknowledge the financial support I received from
a scholarship of the Bavarian State (Stipendium gemäß dem Bay-
erischen Begabtenförderungsgesetz), a scholarship of the Franz-
Marie-Christinen-Stiftung, a Senior Scholarship at Corpus Christi
College, a Vice-Chancellors’ Fund Award, a Charles Oldham Grant,
Preface ix
andaSpecialScholarshipoftheCommitteeforComparativePhilol-
ogy, Linguistics, and Phonetics. Various travel grants from the Uni-
versitàdegliStudidiUrbino,CorpusChristiCollege,andtheCom-
mitteeforComparativePhilology,Linguistics,andPhoneticsenabled
me to attend conferences in Amsterdam, Urbino, and Bologna. I
should like to thank the anonymous committees that gave me the
Chancellor’sLatinVersePrize,theChancellor’sLatinProsePrize,the
GaisfordPrizeforGreekVerse(jointly),andtheGaisfordDissertation
Prize(jointly).The latterwasformy2002barticle,whichformsthe
basisofCh.6.Iamparticularlygratefultotheanonymouscommittee
thatawardedme(jointly)theConingtonPrizeformyD.Phil.thesis.
When I was writing my theses, many friends made sure that I
stayed sane, at least most of the time; I can only mention a few:
Johannes Salomon, Julian Borthwick, Lars Larm, Panagiotis Filos,
Justine Wolfenden, Roozbeh Arianpour, Nicholas Pierpan, Robert
Evans,andReneMcGraw.WhenIwasturningmyD.Phil.intoabook,
SallyChingyiKungencouragedmeeveryday.
I dedicate this book to my parents and my brother. My parents
andmybrotherhavegivenmemoresupportthananyoneelse.Their
advice has been invaluable throughout my life, but never more so
than while I was writing my theses and my book. Especially in the
finalstages,mybrotheralsohelpedmetosolveanycomputerprob-
lemsthatarose.
S¯ıquidinho¯clibro¯poterisreper¯ırelepo¯ris,
illo¯sauxilio¯no¯scefuissemih¯ı.
S¯ınautemmultumpecca¯reuide¯borub¯ıque,
n¯ıltribua¯sill¯ıs;cr¯ıminanostralegis.
W.D.C.d.M.