Perspective fonctionnelle de la phrase et ordre linéaire dans les textes latins tardifs

Abstract

Syntax has a double aspect : the structures manifesting the logico-semantic relationships within the sentence and the means expressing its communicative perspective limit each other mutually. These two sets of rules are linked also in the historical change of the language. My paper presents briefly the modifications of Latin word order, from the classical period to Proto-Romance, and shows how word-ordering rules become first looser and then more and more bound at the beginning of the Middle Ages. At the same time, functional sentence perspective will realize itself in the frame of a small number of fixed sentence types.

Keywords

• Late Latin
• Latin Word Order
• Historical Syntax