Edited by Camille Denizot and Olga Spevak
[Studies in Language Companion Series 190] 2017
► pp. 159–180
This paper explores word order (WO) in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (RGDA), a non-literary text, and offers a basis for both, a comparison between Word Order in literary and non-literary texts, and a comparison between Latin and Greek. After studying different positions occupied by the basic pragmatic functions and by the Verb, it concludes that the pragmatic roles display a strong tendency to occupy fixed spots, in particular: the initial position, preferred by the (New) Topic, the preverbal position, usually occupied by the Focus, and the final position, often filled by the Verb. The preverbal position is highly relevant: any material in preverbal position shows salience. The Tails are used to add information about either the New Topic or the Focus. This means that the right periphery is treated as a salient position.