A Case of Constructional Polysemy in Latin

Michaelis, Laura A.

doi:10.1075/sl.18.1.04mic

Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 18:1 (1994) ► pp.45–70

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A Case of Constructional Polysemy in Latin

Laura A. Michaelis | University of California, Berkeley

Published online: 1 January 1994

https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.18.1.04mic

In this paper, I will examine the syntactic and semantic properties of a Latin correlative construction, the so-called comparative conditional. I will investigate the extent to which this construction inherits its formal and interpretive features from constructions needed independently in the grammar. While the syntactic properties of the comparative conditional are highly motivated, the semantics of the construction is idiosyncratic: there is evidence to indicate that the construction is polysemous, having two related scalar interpretations.

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