Formal Linguistics and the Teaching of Latin Formal Linguistics and the Teaching of Latin: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives in Comparative Grammar Edited by Renato Oniga, Rossella Iovino and Giuliana Giusti Formal Linguistics and the Teaching of Latin: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives in Comparative Grammar, Edited by Renato Oniga, Rossella Iovino and Giuliana Giusti This book first published 2011 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2011 by Renato Oniga, Rossella Iovino, Giuliana Giusti and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-2988-9, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-2988-5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements .................................................................................... ix Foreword .................................................................................................... xi Introduction Why Formal Linguistics for the Teaching of Latin? Giuliana Giusti and Renato Oniga............................................................... 1 Section I. Syntax and Morphology A Formal Approach to Latin Word Order Giampaolo Salvi ........................................................................................ 23 Word Order in Latin Nominal Expressions: The Syntax of Demonstratives Rossella Iovino .......................................................................................... 51 Theoretical and Applied Perspectives in the Teaching of Latin Syntax: On the Particular Question of Word Order Concepción Cabrillana .............................................................................. 65 Control and AcI in Classical Latin: Structural Interpretation Problems and Innovative Tendencies Imre Szilágyi ............................................................................................. 85 Iubeo and Causative Structure Francesco Costantini................................................................................ 101 Relative Clauses of the “Third Type” in Latin? Anna Pompei ........................................................................................... 117 Decomposing Subjects: A Hypothesis on the Controller of the Ablative of the Gerund Silvia Pieroni ........................................................................................... 133 vi Table of Contents Subjunctive Moods in Syntax: A Greek-Latin Comparison Konstantin G. Krasukhin ......................................................................... 151 Comparative Grammar and the Genitive Case: Latin Syntax and the Sabellian Languages Karin Tikkanen........................................................................................ 173 Prefixes and Aspect of Latin Verb: A Typological View Vladimir Panov........................................................................................ 187 Verbal Prefixation in Classical Latin and in Italian: The Prefix ex - Ágnes Jekl ............................................................................................... 201 The Alleged Greek Influence on Latin Compounding Benedicte Nielsen Whitehead.................................................................. 215 Section II. Semantics and Pragmatics Metaphor and the Teaching of Idioms in Latin William M. Short..................................................................................... 227 Amatory Figures of Speech in Latin Lyric Poetry Ioana-Rucsandra Dascalu ........................................................................ 245 Linguistic Semantics and the Representation of Word Meaning in Latin Dictionaries David B. Wharton.................................................................................... 255 The Discrete-Dense-Compact Categorization in Latin Sophie Van Laer ...................................................................................... 279 Pragmalinguistic Observations in Late Ancient Virgilian Commentaries Ilaria Torzi............................................................................................... 301 Section III. History and Theory of Teaching Generative Grammar and the Didactics of Latin: The Use of Examples Bernard Bortolussi................................................................................... 319 Linguistics and the Teaching of Classical Languages Ugo Cardinale.......................................................................................... 343 Formal Linguistics and the Teaching of Latin vii Sintassi dei casi latina e moderna riflessione linguistica: Note teoriche e didattiche Davide Astori........................................................................................... 355 Pragmatic Aspects of Teaching Translation Methods from Latin to Italian Andrea Balbo........................................................................................... 371 Working Materials for the Teaching of Latin in the Perspective of Contemporary Linguistics Piervincenzo Di Terlizzi.......................................................................... 393 Tesnière’s Dependency Grammar and its Application in Teaching Latin: A Slovenian Experience Matjaž Babi č............................................................................................ 401 Latino e albanese: Prospettive linguistiche per l’insegnamento universitario nella nuova Europa Evalda Paci.............................................................................................. 413 Conclusion Linguistic Theory and the Teaching of Latin Anna Cardinaletti..................................................................................... 429 Contributors............................................................................................. 445 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to sincerely thank all the persons and institutions that have supported our enterprise: Dr. Carmela Palumbo and Dr. Daniela Beltrame, directors of the Regional School Offices for Veneto and Friuli - Venezia Giulia; Prof. Stefano Quaglia for the coordination between the two offices; Prof. Rainer Weissengruber, president of the Centrum Latinitatis Europae; Prof. William Short for his availability in reading a previous version of some papers; Carol Koulikourdi and Amanda Millar from CSP for their punctual and precious work. This volume is published with the contribution of the MIUR, Project PRIN 2008 “Language didactics and formal linguistics: comparative grammar applications and perspectives”, Research Unit at the Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, University of Udine, Italy. FOREWORD The international conference Formal Linguistics and the Teaching of Latin was held in Venice on November 18-20, 2010. It was jointly organized by the Dipartimento di Glottologia e Filologia Classica of the University of Udine and the Dipartimento di Scienze del Linguaggio of the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice. The conference was the first stage of a research project, supported by the Italian Ministry of Education (MIUR), which aims to contribute an improvement of language teaching in high schools and universities. The debate over the role of grammatical reflection in language learning is nowadays more lively than ever. Our working hypothesis is that the achievements of formal linguistics, which compares different languages and tries to represent the way in which grammar rules are codified in the mind, may be useful to promote a new approach to the study of Latin. The main theme of the conference, which brought together many researchers from all over Europe and the United States, was the comparison of certain linguistic phenomena in different languages (not only classical languages, but also modern languages), and their interpretation by means of the most updated theoretical tools of contemporary linguistics. The comparison leads us to highlight the similarities as well as the differences among languages: this results in a great advantage for the learners, who must be made aware of the limited area of linguistic variation. A new comparative method, not only limited to the traditional Indo- European historical perspective, will allow students to approach Latin in a more motivating way: they will no longer learn by heart the inexplicable rules of school grammar, but will discover how human languages function and change, focalizing on what they already know of the language they are learning, before discovering the points of divergence from their mother tongue. In this perspective, the study of an explicit and scientific grammar loses any passive character, to become an activity which enhances linguistic awareness, meta-linguistic competence, and critical thought. This volume is divided into three sections, reflecting the main subject areas that have been investigated by the conference participants, from the various methodological frameworks of contemporary Latin linguistics. The first section shows how formal accounts can revive the traditional fields of syntax and morphology. Particular attention is paid to some crucial problems of Latin grammar, such as word order, phrase and clause xii Foreword structure, prefixation and composition. The second section is devoted to two other fields that have increasingly stimulated new research in recent years, semantics