Periphrastic comparison in Latin

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F18%3A10381853" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/18:10381853 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Periphrastic comparison in Latin

Original language description

Comparison of adjectives (and adverbs) is a grammatical category that has passed practically unremarked upon by generations of Latin linguists. Latin grammar books (with few exceptions, cf. Pinkster 2005: 47; Kühner - Holzweissig 1912: 565-566) omit entirely the question of which adjectives can be compared and which cannot. Nevertheless, the data from modern languages show that the category of comparison of adjectives (and adverbs) is actually highly limited, making it essential to address this question for Latin, too. One of the issues comprehended within the extremely complex area of (non-)gradability of adjectives is periphrastic comparison. Latin grammar books explain, based on the assertions of ancient Latin grammarians, that it applies to adjectives ending in -eus, -ius and -uus, implying, or even explicitly stating, that the reason for this type of comparison is phonetic incompatibility of the word-formative suffix with the comparative suffix. However, two facts call for reinterpretation of the matter: 1) periphrastic comparison also occurs in other adjectives for which there is no phonetic incompatibility; 2) by contrast, some adjectives in -eus, -ius and -uus actually do have simple forms. In the light of these facts, this paper aims to map the real situation of periphrastic comparison in Latin. The employed corpus comprises all the words marked as adjectives in the Oxford Latin Dictionary (more than 10,000 items) and all their occurrences throughout the database Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina III.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60203 - Linguistics

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA17-11247S" target="_blank" >GA17-11247S: Comparison of adjectives in Latin</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2018

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Journal of Latin Linguistics [online]

ISSN

2194-8747

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

17

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

DE - GERMANY

Number of pages

18

Pages from-to

93-110

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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