Cover not available
Article published In:
Latin influence on the syntax of the languages of Europe
Edited by Bert Cornillie and Bridget Drinka
[Belgian Journal of Linguistics 33] 2019
► pp. 108–124

AcI

Inheritance and influence on some languages of Western Europe

| Università di Milano-Bicocca
| Università di Bergamo
This paper examines the history of the Accusativus cum Infinitivo (henceforth: AcI) construction in some languages of Western Europe (the Romance and Germanic languages), and attempts to ascertain whether the AcI in the modern languages is modelled on the AcI of Latin or whether the form was simply inherited. In this paper, only those constructions which are formed with verbs of saying or thinking + infinitive are considered instances of true AcI constructions. Following Pountain (1998), we attempt to distinguish ‘hard’ vs ‘weak’, ‘total’ vs ‘partial’, ‘learnèd’ vs ‘non-learnèd’ Latinisms. In conclusion, we hypothesize that the construction is favoured by Latin models, but it is consistent with structural patterns already occurring in the languages involved.
Keywords: Accusativus cum Infinitivo, Latinism, Romance languages, Germanic languages, complement clause, perception verbs, verbs of saying and thinking
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.AcI: A brief history of the construction
  • 3.A possible Latinism?
  • 4.The Germanic languages
  • 5.The Romance languages
    • 5.1Spanish
    • 5.2French
    • 5.3Italian
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 March 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bjl.00024.mil
References (37)
References
Alonso, Damaso. 1950. Poesía española. Ensayo de métodos y límites estilísticos. Barcelona: Editorial Gredos.Google Scholar
Bartonĕk, Antonín. 2010. A comparative Graeco-Latin sentence syntax within the European context. München: Lincom.Google Scholar
Blatt, Franz. 1957. “Latin influence on European syntax.” Travaux de Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague 111: 33–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruckner, Charles. 1977. “La valeur du témoignage linguistique des traductions médiévales: les contructions infinitives en moyen français.” In Linguistique et Philologie (applications aux textes médiévaux), Université de Picardie, Centres d’Études Médiévales, Actes du Colloque des 19 et 30 avril 1977, ed. by Danielle Buschinger, 325–344. Paris: Champion.Google Scholar
Calboli, Gualtiero. 2003. “L’emploi des modes dans le latin tardif.” In Actes du VIème Colloque international sur le latin vulgaire et latin tardif, ed. by Heikki Solin, Martti Leiwo, and Hilla Halla-aho, 479–499. Hildesheim/Zürich/New York: Olms-Weidmann.Google Scholar
Camproux, Charles. 1968. Étude syntaxique des parlers gévaudanais. Montpellier: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Coleman, Robert. 1985. “The Indo-European origins and Latin development of the Accusative with Infinitive Construction.” In Syntaxe et Latin. Actes du IIe Congrès International de Linguistique Latine, Aix-en-Provence, 28–31 Mars 1983, ed. by Christian Touratier, 307–342. Aix-en-Provence: Université de Provence.Google Scholar
Cristofaro, Sonia. 1996. Aspetti sintattici e semantici delle frasi completive in greco antico. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.Google Scholar
Cuzzolin, Pierluigi. 1994. Sull’origine della costruzione dicere quod: aspetti sintattici e semantici. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.Google Scholar
. 2013. “Some remarks on quia as a subordinator after verbs of saying and thinking.” Journal of Latin Linguistics 12 (1): 51–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dardano, Maurizio. 2012. “La subordinazione completiva.” In Sintassi dell’italiano antico, ed. by Maurizio Dardano, 120–195. Roma: Carocci.Google Scholar
Egerland, Verner. 2010. “Frasi subordinate all’infinito.” In Grammatica dell’italiano antico, ed. by Giampaolo Salvi, and Lorenzo Renzi, 817–879. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Fischer, Olga. 1990. Syntactic change and causation: developments in infinitival constructions in English. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
. 1992. “Syntactic change and borrowing: the case of the Accusative-and-Infinitive Construction in English.” In Internal and external factors in syntactic change, ed. by Marinel Gerritsen, and Dieter Stein, 17–88. Berlin-New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gramsci, Antonio. 1965. Lettere dal carcere. Torino: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Greco, Paolo. 2012. La complementazione frasale nelle cronache latine dell’Italia centro-meridionale (secoli X–XII). Napoli: Liguori Editore.Google Scholar
Gross, Maurice. 1969. Grammaire transformationnelle du français. Lexique des constructions complétives. Paris: Larousse.Google Scholar
Harmer, Lewis. 1979. Uncertainties in French Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Herman, József. 1963. La formation du système roman des conjonctions de subordination. Deutsche Akademie der Wiss., Institut für Romanische Sprachwiss. Nr.18. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.Google Scholar
Hettrich, Heinrich. 1992. “Die Enstehung des lateinischen und griechischen AcI.” In Rekonstruktion und relative Chronologie, ed. by Robert Beekes, Alexander Lubotsky, and Jos Weitenberg, 221–234. Innsbruck.Google Scholar
Hofmann, Johann Baptist, and Anton Szantyr. 1965. Lateinische Syntax und Stilistik, ed. by Manu Leumann, Johann Baptist Hofmann, and Anton Szantyr, Lateinische Grammatik, II1 Band. München.Google Scholar
Lewis, Geoffrey. 1967. Turkish grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Migliorini, Bruno. 1960. Storia della lingua italiana. Firenze: Sansoni.Google Scholar
Octavio de Toledo, Alvaro S. 2005. “Algunos rasgos morfosintácticos en la primera prosa dieciochesca (1725–1755): conservaciones, innovaciones, rasgos caracterizadores.” Presentation at V Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Internacional de Jóvenes Investigadores en Historia e Historiografia de la Lengua Española. Universidad de Toledo . 31 marzo a 21 april.
Pearce, Elizabeth. 1982. “Infinitival complements in Old French and diachronic change.” Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 121: 117–45.Google Scholar
Pons Rodríguez, Lola. 2008. “Las construcciones imitativas del Accusativus cum infinitivo: modelos latinos y consecuencias romances.” Revista de Historia de la Lengua Española: 117–148.Google Scholar
. 2010. La lengua de ayer: manual práctico de historia del español. Madrid: Arcos-Libros.Google Scholar
Posner, Rebecca. 1994. “Historical linguistics, language change and the history of French.” Journal of French Language Studies 41: 75–97. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1997. Linguistic change in French. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pountain, Christopher. 1998. “Learnèd syntax and the Romance languages: the ‘Accusative and Infinitive’ construction with declarative verbs in Castilian.” Transactions of the Philological Society 96 (2): 159–201. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rickard, Peter. 1982. “ Prier and its constructions from Old to Early Modern French.” Vox Romanica 411: 133–157.Google Scholar
Segre, Cesare. 1963. Lingua, stile e società. Milano: Feltrinelli.Google Scholar
Timofeeva, Olga. 2010. Non-finite constructions in Old English with special reference to syntactic borrowing from Latin. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Vetter, Emil. 1953. Handbuch der Italienischen Dialekte. I1 Band. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Visser, Fredericus Theodorus. 1973. An historical syntax of the English language. III/21. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Warner, Anthony. 1982. Complementation in Middle English and the methodology of historical linguistics. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, Jacob. 1908. The Accusative with Infinitive and some kindred constructions in English. New York: Columbia University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Greußlich, Sebastian
2022. Subjectification and Ausbau: The case of French attribut évaluatif du COD – marked and unmarked. Romanische Forschungen 134:4 ► pp. 443 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 june 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.