This project addresses the historical syntax of one of the most securely known and intensely studied Indo-European languages, Latin. Latin provides a continuous fund of linguistic information over an extended period, allowing a unique view of the syntactic evolution of a single language. We approach the historical syntax of Latin utilising a holistic perspective on syntactic change which has a general applicability beyond Latin.
The approach we are proposing combines structural considerations of the traditional type with established functional and typological principles. The conceptual propositions underlying a functional/typological perspective are first, that cognitive principles are involved in grammatical organization; and second, that some crucial semantic notions are pervasively encoded in syntax. The elements forming the basis for a historical framework are not strictly grammatical entities, but include conceptual domains. Examples of such domains are POSSESSION, COMPARISON, NEGATION, and QUANTIFICATION. This approach contrasts with traditional structure-based methodologies of historical syntax, which tend to concentrate on the transmission of grammatical categories from one stage of a language to another. But syntactic change does not operate with mechanical regularity, transmitting structural entities. In order to explain major changes, we need more than structural mappings in our analytical arsenal, and we need the methodological flexibility to look outside the structural expressions of a language in accounting for the development of conceptual categories from one stage to another. This approach provides an array of explanatory devices which far exceeds those of traditional methodologies, and promises far richer results in our understanding of syntactic change.
