Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton June 14, 2016

I, Claudian: the syntactical and metrical alignment of ego in Claudian and his epic predecessors

  • Peter Kruschwitz EMAIL logo and Clare Coombe

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of the syntactical and metrical alignment of the subject pronoun of the first person singular in Latin epic. Based on the observation that, due to its prosody, ego may only feature in a certain number of sedes within the dactylic hexameter line, a quantitative and qualitative argument is made for a careful distinction between emphatic and unstressed uses in relation to consistent patterns of metrical and syntactical collocation.

References

Adams, J. N. 1994. Wackernagel’s law and the position of unstressed personal pronouns in Classical Latin. Transactions of the Philological Society 92(2). 103–178.10.1111/j.1467-968X.1994.tb00430.xSearch in Google Scholar

Adams, J. N. 1999. Nominative personal pronouns and some patterns of speech in Republican and Augustan poetry. In J. N. Adams & R. G. Mayer (eds.), Aspects of the language of Latin poetry (Proceedings of the British Academy 93), 97–133. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Ceccarelli, L. 2004. Osservazioni sull’esametro di Claudiano. In Ehlers et al., Aetas Claudianea. Eine Tagung an der Freien Universität Berlin vom 28. bis 30. Juni 2002, 104–141. Munich & Leipzig: Teubner.10.1515/9783110928846.104Search in Google Scholar

Christiansen, P. G. & D. Christiansen. 2009. Claudian: The last great pagan poet. L’Antiquité Classique 78. 133–144.10.3406/antiq.2009.3741Search in Google Scholar

Dik, H. 2003. On unemphatic “emphatic” pronouns in Greek: Nominative pronouns in Plato and Sophocles. Mnemosyne Ser. IV 56. 535–550.10.1163/156852503770735943Search in Google Scholar

Ehlers, W. W., F. Felgentreu & S. M. Wheeler (eds.). 2004. Aetas Claudianea. Eine Tagung an der Freien Universität Berlin vom 28. bis 30. Juni 2002. Munich & Leipzig: Teubner.10.1515/9783110928846Search in Google Scholar

Felgentreu, F. 1999. Claudians Praefationes. Bedingungen, Beschreibungen und Wirkungen einer poetischen Kleinform (Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 130). Stuttgart & Leipzig: Teubner.10.1515/9783110961249Search in Google Scholar

Guipponi-Gineste, M.-F. 2010. Claudien: poète du monde à la cour d’Occident. Paris: De Boccard.10.2307/j.ctv327fwbgSearch in Google Scholar

Hofmann, J. B. & A. Szantyr. 1965. Lateinische Syntax und Stilistik (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft II 2.2). Munich: C. H. Beck.Search in Google Scholar

Jones, M. 1988. Sardinian. In M. Harris & N. Vincent (eds.), The Romance languages, 314–350. London & Sydney: Croom Helm.Search in Google Scholar

Kruschwitz, P. 2004. Römische Inschriften und Wackernagels Gesetz (Schriften der Philosophisch-historischen Klasse der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften 31/04), Heidelberg: Winter.Search in Google Scholar

Kruschwitz, P. Forthcoming. Easy on the ‘I’. A functional analysis of the unstressed Latin subject pronoun (Ego, Tu, Nos, Vos).Search in Google Scholar

Kühner, R. & C. Stegmann. 1992 [19142]. Grammatik der lateinischen Sprache. Hanover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung. Reprint, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.Search in Google Scholar

Lücht, W. 2011. Das Lateinische als pro-drop-Sprache: Der Gebrauch von Subjektpronomina in der römischen Komödie aus sprachtypologischer und empirischer Sicht. Glotta 87. 126–154.10.13109/glot.2011.87.14.126Search in Google Scholar

Vincent, N. 1988. Latin. In M. Harris & N. Vincent (eds.), The Romance languages, 26–78. London & Sydney: Croom Helm.Search in Google Scholar

Wanner, D. 1987. The development of Romances clitic pronouns, from Latin to Old Romance. Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110893069Search in Google Scholar

Ware, C. 2012. Claudian and the Roman epic tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139004152Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2016-6-14
Published in Print: 2016-6-1

©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton

Downloaded on 16.4.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/joll-2016-0003/html
Scroll to top button