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Devine, A.M., Stephens, L.D. 2006. Latin . Structured Meaning and Information. New York, Oxford University Press. xii, 639 p. Pr. $65.00.

Devine and Stephens’ book is probably the longest work on Latin word order that has ever been written, even longer than Marouzeau’s three volumes (in total 546 pages) of L’ordre des mots dans la phrase latine (1922-1949). Th e book is organised into seven parts. In the introduction (pp. 3-35) the authors present the general framework with an overview of theoretical concepts, aims and methodology. Six chapters are dedicated to major domains of Latin word order. Th ree chapters deal with the : “Arguments of ” (pp. 36-144), “Verb positions” (pp. 145-224), and “Strong and weak arguments” (pp. 225-313). Th ree chapters are devoted to the noun phrase: “Arguments of nominals” (pp. 314-402), “Modifiers” (pp. 403-523), and “Hyperbaton” (pp. 524-610). Th e six chapters have the same structure: an introductory section establishing the basic order of the constituents, followed by a detailed description of the abundant material that they have collected from var- ious texts. Th en comes a section entitled “Structural analysis”, in which detailed theoretical explanations are offered. Th e chapters are followed by a few biblio- graphical references. Th e book is accompanied by a rich bibliography and two indexes, nominum and rerum. Th ere is no conclusion. D. & S.’ study, written within the minimalist generative grammar framework, tries to analyse and explain various word order patterns attested in classical Latin prose. Th e main aim of the work is to combine a philological analysis of data with theoretical insights. Th e terminology and concepts used are mainly those of gen- erative grammar, but there are several innovations seemingly inspired by other approaches to word order.1) Th e authors distinguish three pragmatic values (p. 14): topic (constituent about which the sentence gives information), (new information), and tail (established constituent that does not function as topic). Topic and focus can be narrow and strong. D. & S. start from the assumption—shared also by other scholars—that Latin word order is “grammatically free but pragmatically fixed, while English word order is pragmatically free but grammatically fixed” (p. 29). If this were the case

1) For the distinction between established information and new information, see Firbas, J. 1992. Functional Sentence Perspective in Written and Spoken Communication (Cambridge). Th e concept of contextual dependence (givenness) and independence appear in D. & S. passim without being used systematically. Cf. Dik, S.C. 21997. Th e Th eory of Functional Grammar, 2 vols. (Berlin/New York), I.68, 312, for the concepts of topic, focus, and tail. In functional grammar, they are defined as functions borne by a constituent, whereas gen- erative grammar considers topic and focus as pragmatic features.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007 DOI: 10.1163/156852507X195592

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one may ask why one should establish a basic order of the verb and its arguments formulated in syntactic terms, as D. & S. do (p. 79):

> direct > indirect object/oblique argument2) > adjunct > goal/source > non referential direct object > verb (where > means ‘followed by’)

What is the relevance of the succession of syntactic terms in a syntactically ‘free’— or better ‘variable’—word order language like Latin?3) If, on the other hand, it is argued that word order is pragmatically ‘free’, one would expect information about the organisation of pragmatically marked constituents instead, i.e. of topic, focus, and tail, with possible intervention of other constituents. Th e assumption of the basic order mentioned above, based, as the authors say, on “empirical evidence” (p. 37; see below for discussion), is closely related to what is assumed in this theo- retical framework for Germanic languages, especially German and Dutch. Th ese languages exhibit a subject > object > verb order in subordinate clauses and verb second position in declarative main clauses.4) Even if there are a few particular cases allowing another placement of constituents, these patterns are obligatory in German and Dutch. In Latin, however, a different order from the one supposed to be the basic order, for example verb > object > subject, does not produce an ungrammatical sentence. However, D. & S.’ approach to Latin closely resembles descriptions of a Germanic language in generative grammar terms.5) Th ey use the graphical representations of word order patterns common in that approach and describe orders other than the basic one in terms of ‘movements’ of constituents. Two types of movements are distinguished: leftwards and rightwards movements. In particular, the authors operate with ‘scrambling’ (“leftwards movement that disturbs the neutral order in subject > object > verb languages”, p. 136 n. 2). Scrambling may be a good concept for explaining (rare) Dutch word order varia- tions, but is it sufficient or adequate for describing variable Latin word order?

2) Ch. Polo (2004. Word Order between Morphology and (Padova), 222, 228), writing in a similar framework, assumes that the basic order is: subject > indirect object > direct object > verb, with the indirect object coming before the direct object. Th is recent book is not in D. & S.’ bibliography. See my review in this journal, Mnemosyne 59 (2006), 434-53. 3) See Pinkster, H. 1991. Evidence for SVO in Latin?, in: Wright, R. (éd.) Latin and the Romance Languages in the Early Middle Ages (London/New York), 69-82, esp. 74. Th is title is missing from D. & S.’ bibliography. 4) For a discussion concerning basic subject > object > verb order in Dutch, see Zwart, C.J.-W. 1997. Morphosyntax of Verb Movement (Dordrecht), 40 and 81 ff. 5) Cf. for example Zwart 1997 (see n. 4).

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