Some remarks on dicens in Late Latin texts
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Indogermanische Forschungen |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | Some remarks on dicens in Late Latin texts |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/if-2017-0001 |
| Field | Linguistics |
| Keywords | quotative marker; Late Latin; grammaticalization; direct speech |
| Attached files | |
| Description | This paper examines the use of the participles dicens or dicentes ‘saying’ introducing direct speech in Late Latin texts from the 6th to 8th centuries. It argues that dicens/dicentes shows signs of ongoing grammaticalization and develops into a quotative marker, acquiring a discourse-organizing function. The analyzed signs of grammaticalization of dicens/dicentes examined in the paper include “frozen” dicens/dicentes which disagrees in case and/or in number; redundant dicens/dicentes after verbs of speech; the position of dicens/dicentes immediately before direct speech; and the spread of dicens/dicentes to new contexts. It is assumed that individual instances show various degrees of grammaticalization, but that dicens/dicentes is not a fully grammaticalized quotative marker. |
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