Latin syntax is the part of Latin grammar that covers such matters as word order, the use of cases, tenses and moods, and the construction of simple and compound sentences, also known as periods.Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 433.
The study of Latin syntax in a systematic way was particularly a feature of the late 19th century, especially in Germany. For example, in the 3rd edition of Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar (1895), the reviser, Gonzalez Lodge, mentions 38 scholars whose works have been used in its revision; of these 31 wrote in German, five in English and two in French. (The English scholars include Roby and Lindsay).
In the twentieth century, the German tradition was continued with the publication of two very comprehensive grammars: the Ausführliche Grammatik der lateinischen Sprache by Raphael Kühner and Karl Stegmann (1912, first edition 1879), and the Lateinische Grammatik by Manu Leumann, J.B. Hofmann, and Anton Szantyr (revised edition Munich 1977, first edition 1926). Among works published in English may be mentioned E.C. Woodcock's A New Latin Syntax (1959). More recently, taking advantage of computerised texts, three major works have been published on Latin word order, one by the American scholars Andrew Devine and Laurence Stephens (2006),Devine & Stephens (2006). and two (adopting a different approach) by the Czech scholar Olga Spevak (2010 and 2014).Spevak (2010); Spevak (2014).
Latin word order
Latin word order is relatively free. The verb may be found at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence; an adjective may precede or follow its noun ( or both mean 'a good man');Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 431. and a genitive may precede or follow its noun ('the enemies' camp' can be both and ; the latter is more common).Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 430. There are also stylistic differences between Latin authors; for example, while Caesar always writes 'he sets up camp', Livy more often writes .Devine & Stephens (2006), p. 126.
There are however certain constraints; for example, in prose a monosyllabic preposition such as in 'in' generally precedes its noun (e.g. 'in Italy').Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 432. Moreover, even though adjectives can both precede and follow the noun, there is a tendency for different kinds of adjectives to take different positions; for example adjectives of size usually come before the nounWalker (1918), p. 648.H.J. Rose (1924) ( 'in a loud voice', rarely ), while "modifiers that are more important than their noun or that specify it"Spevak (2014), pp. 212ff. (e.g. 'the Appian Way') usually follow it.
To explain Latin word order there are two main schools of thought. One, represented by Devine and Stephens (2006), argues from the point of view of generative grammar, and maintains that Latin prose has a basic underlying "neutral" word order, from which authors deviate for reasons of emphasis, topicalisation, rhythm, and so on. According to Devine and Stephens, the basic order in broad scope focus sentences is as follows:Devine & Stephens (2006), p. 79.
Subject – Direct Object – Indirect Object / Oblique Argument – Adjunct – Goal or Source Argument – Non-Referential Direct Object – Verb
The other approach, represented by Panhuis (1982) and Olga Spevak (2010), examines Latin word order from the point of view of functional grammar. Rejecting the idea that there is a basic word order, this approach seeks to explain word order in terms of pragmatic factors, such as topic and focus, and semantic ones (1st person before 2nd, human before animals or things, agent before patient, etc.).Spevak (2010), pp. 2ff.
Examples of word order
The order of words is often chosen according to the emphasis required by the author. One way of emphasising a word is to reverse the usual order.Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 429. For example, in the opening sentence of Caesar's Gallic War, the usual order of numeral and noun trīs partīs 'three parts' is reversed to emphasise the number "three": Caesar, B.G. 1.1.1. 'Gaul, considered as a whole, is divided into three (parts)'
Another technique used by Latin authors is to separate a phrase and put another word or phrase in the middle, for example: Nepos, Hannibal 9.2. 'for he was carrying with him a large sum of money'
The technical term for this kind of separation is "hyperbaton" (Greek for 'stepping over'); it is described by Devine and Stephens as 'perhaps the most distinctively alien feature of Latin word order'.Divine & Stephens (2006), p. 524.
Placing the verb at or near the beginning of a clause sometimes indicates that the action is sudden or unexpected:Divine & Stephens (2006), p. 159. Cicero, Mil. 29. 'immediately several men, (armed) with weapons, launch an attack on my client from higher ground'
Splitting up an adjective-noun phrase and bringing the adjective to the beginning of the sentence can highlight it. In the following example from Cicero, the splitting of 'blood-stained' and 'dagger' creates a dramatic effect:Divine & Stephens (2006), p. 545. Cicero, Phil. 2.28. 'immediately, raising high the blood-stained dagger, Brutus shouted out "Cicero" by name'
Considerations of rhythm and elegance also play a part in Latin word order.Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 429; Walker (1918), p. 652. For example, Pliny the Younger begins a letter as follows: Pliny, Ep. 1.13.1. 'it is a great crop of poets this year has brought'
In this sentence, the object ( 'a great crop of poets') has been brought forward to highlight it. The other striking feature is the order for the more usual 'this year'. Two reasons which might be suggested are Pliny's fondness for ending a sentence with the rhythm − u − − u −"a clausula of cretic plus cretic, a favorite with Pliny": Selatie E. Stout, Scribe and Critic at Work in Pliny's Letters (1954), p. 150. (The symbol – stands for a long syllable, and u for a short one.) and also no doubt because of the elegant assonance of the vowels a-u-i a-u-i in the last three words.
Gender and number Gender and number agreement Latin has three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and two numbers (singular and plural). Pronouns, adjectives, participles, and the numbers one to three have to agree in gender and number with the noun they refer to:
Masculine : :Matt. 17.5. 'this is my son' Feminine : : 'this is my daughter' Neuter : :Matt. 26.26. 'this is my body'
The same three genders are also found in the plural:
Masculine : : 'these are my sons' Feminine : : 'these are my daughters' Neuter : :Virgil, Ec. 9.1. 'these things are mine'
In Latin, words referring to males are always masculine, words referring to females are usually feminine.Kennedy (1930) , pp. 14-15. (An exception is (neuter) 'a whore'.) Words referring to things can be any of the three genders, for example 'mountain' (masculine), 'tree' (feminine), 'name' (neuter). However, there are certain rules; for example, nouns with the suffixes -a (unless referring to men), -tiō, -tās are feminine; the names of trees, islands, and countries, such as 'pine', 'Cyprus', and 'Egypt' are also usually feminine, and so on. Some nouns such as 'parent' can vary between masculine and feminine and are called of "common" gender.The appendix of Kennedy's Revised Latin Primer, pp. 221-225, has a series of rhymes to assist in learning the rules for gender.
When words of different genders are combined, the adjective is usually masculine if referring to people, neuter if referring to things:Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 183. (Terence)Terence, Eun. 518. 'my father and mother are dead (masc.)' (Livy)Livy, 32.29.1. 'the wall (masc.) and gate (fem.) had been struck (neut. pl.) by lightning' (lit. 'touched from the sky')
However, sometimes the adjective may agree with the nearest noun.
Latin cases
Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in Latin change their endings according to their function in the sentence. The different endings are called different "cases". Case endings of a similar kind are also found in other languages, such as Ancient and Modern Greek, German, Russian, Hungarian, Finnish, Sanskrit, Armenian, Classical Arabic, and Turkish.Blake, Barry (1994). Case. Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics: Cambridge University Press.
The six cases most commonly used in Latin and their main meanings are given below. The cases are presented here in the order Nom, Voc, Acc, Gen, Dat, Abl, which has been used in Britain and countries influenced by Britain ever since the publication of Kennedy's Latin Primer in the 19th century.Christopher Stray (1996), Grinders and Grammars: A Victorian Controversy (The Textbook Colloquium). A different order – Nom, Gen, Dat, Acc, Voc, Abl, or its variation Nom, Gen, Dat, Acc, Abl, Voc – is used in many European countries and the United States.
Nominative : : 'the/a king' (Subject, or Complement (e.g. 'he is the king')) Vocative : : 'o king!' Accusative : : 'the king' (Object, or Goal) Genitive : : 'of the king' Dative : : 'to the king', 'for that king' Ablative : : 'with the king' (also 'by, from, in')
(A small line, called a macron, over a vowel indicates that it is pronounced long.)
Another case is the locative, which is used mostly with the names of cities (e.g. 'in Rome') and a very limited number of ordinary nouns (e.g. 'at home').
Examples of case use
The following examples from Caesar show the cases used in a basic sense:
Caesar, Bell. Gall. 7.27. 'Caesar (Nom) gave a signal (Acc.) to the soldiers (Dat)'
Here is the subject of the sentence, and so nominative case; 'to the soldiers' is dative case, a case typically used with the verb 'I give' (hence the name "dative"); while is the direct object, and so accusative case.
Caesar, Bell. Civ. 2.24.1. 'Curio (Nom.) sends ahead Marcius (Acc.) to Utica (Acc.) with the ships (Abl.)'
Here as subject of the verb is nominative, as direct object is accusative; is also accusative as it is the goal or object of motion; and 'with the ships' has the ablative ending. Although the ending -ibus is the same for both dative and ablative plural, the ablative meaning "with" is more appropriate in this context.
Caesar, Bell. Civ. 1.24.1. 'Pompey (Nom) from Luceria (Abl) sets out to Canusium (Acc)'
Here Pompeius is subject (Nom.), Lūceriā shows another meaning of the ablative ending, namely 'from', and Canusium is again accusative of goal. With names of cities there is no need to add a preposition such as 'to', but the accusative case alone indicates "to".
An example illustrating the genitive case is the following:
Caesar, Bell. Gal. 2.7.3. 'the enemy (Nom.) hastened towards Caesar's (Gen.) camp (Acc.) with all their forces (Abl.)'
Here , the goal of motion, is in the accusative following the preposition 'to' or 'towards'; 'of Caesar' or 'Caesar's' is in the genitive case; and 'with all their forces' is in the ablative case, with the meaning 'with'.
Idioms using the dative case The description of the use of cases is not always straightforward. The classification of the uses of the dative alone takes up nearly twelve pages in Woodcock's A New Latin SyntaxWoodcock (1959), pp. 38-50. and ten pages in Gildersleeve and Lodge.Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), pp. 218-230. For example, when asking someone's name, a Roman would say: (Plautus)Plautus, Pseud. 634 and 639; Pre. 697; Trin. 886. 'what's your name?' (lit. 'what is for you the name?')
This is an example of the dative of possession, as in: (Plautus)Plautus, Poen. 84. 'he had two daughters' (lit. 'to him there were two daughters')
Another idiomatic use is the "dative of the person affected": (Plautus)Plautus, Aul. 635; cf. Gildersleeve and Lodge (1895), p. 219. 'I haven't stolen anything from you' (lit. 'for you'; compare German: )
The dative is also used with verbs of fighting with someone:Kühner & Stegmann (1912), p. 319. (Catullus)Catullus, 62.64. 'don't fight with (lit. 'for') two people at once'