Patrick MCFADDEN Discontinuous
Word Order in Latin as a Marker of Episodic Organization
This study seeks to demonstrate that discontinuous word order in
Latin is not a device for highlighting information locally, but
rather a global device that functions on the discourse level to mark
clauses which begin new thematic units, sometimes called "episodes."
The sort of discontinuity under examination is exemplified by Livy
1.4.4 and 1.40.4 below in (1) and (2), respectively:
(1) forte quadam diuinitus super ripas Tiberis effusus lenibus stagnis nec adiri usquam ad IUSTI CURSUM poterat AMNIS . . . .
(2) ferro igitur [filii Anci] EAM arcere CONTUMELIAM statuunt.
The sentences above end with a common, marked Latin word-order
pattern in which a verb separates a noun from its attributive
modifiers. A corpus of over two hundred examples of discontinuous
NP's taken from Livy 1.1-40 and Velleius 2.1-65 shows that they occur
regularly in clauses which begin (or infrequently in those which end)
thematic units as defined by Kroon (Discourse Particles in Latin
[Amsterdam 1995]). Discontinuous NP's seem to serve the same
function as autem, and the word order has a significant rate
of cooccurrence with the particle.
The value of word order patterns as discourse marking devices may be
suggested by Bolkestein's observations on Verb-Subject ordering in
initiative, discontinuative, and similar clauses ("Free but not
arbitrary: 'emotive' word in Latin?" On Latin, edd. Risselada
et al. [Amsterdam 1996], 7-24).
Discontinuous NP's mark clauses that begin new referential and
non-referential thematic units. In referential thematic units
discontinuity accompanies the introduction of New Discourse Topics or
the elevation of Given Discourse Topics to Topic function (as defined
in S. Dik, The Theory of Functional Grammar,2 ed. Hengeveld
[Berlin/New York 1997]). In non-referential thematic units it
accompanies changes in setting for the series of actions in the
narrative, e.g., changes in time, place, perspective, etc. Finally,
discontinuity occasionally marks the related local structure of
parallel Focus, as demonstrated below:
(3) Romulus SEPTEM ET TRIGINTA regnavit ANNOS, Numa tres et quadraginta. (Liv. 1.21.6)
In conclusion, it is asserted that discontinuity should be considered a cue for readers of Latin. It functions much like typographical indentation or bold faced type highlighting the topic sentence, so to speak, of a new discourse unit.