Cover not available

In:Pragmatic Approaches to Latin and Ancient Greek
Edited by Camille Denizot and Olga Spevak
[Studies in Language Companion Series 190] 2017
► pp. 235–256

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 11
Polar questions in Latin with and without the enclitic particle -ne

 | Thesaurus linguae Latinae | Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Munich
Published online: 1 November 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.190.11sch
Abstract
The Latin enclitic particle -ne, which may be of an affirmative origin, is an optional focusing particle of polar questions, which in Latin can also occur without any particle. To analyse polar questions I have distinguished four groups of questions in the comedies of Plautus and Terence, according to pragmatic criteria. Both kinds of questions can occur in all groups, but questions without a particle have a stronger tendency to appear among those related to the speech situation, questions with a particle among those with a directive force. Moreover, as has often been observed, the particle -ne seems to be preferred in combination with certain host words. I have checked whether these are also frequent in the first position of interrogative sentences without -ne.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data: Corpus A
    • 2.1Distribution of -ne
    • 2.2Diachrony
  • 3.Corpus B: Direct simple polar questions in Plautus and Terence
  • 4.Function of questions with -ne and without any particle
    • 4.1Four groups of questions
      • 4.1.1External questions, asking for new information
      • 4.1.2Questions related to the situation of the speech
      • 4.1.3Questions with directive force
      • 4.1.4Questions with expressive/assertive force
    • 4.2 -ne in exclamatory sentences
    • 4.3Comparison
  • 5.Frequent combinations of host word and -ne
  • 6.Etymology
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (40)
References
Álvarez Huerta, Olga. 2012. Latín nē y -nĕ: ¿una o dos partículas? Linguarum Varietas 1: 91–98.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderson, Andrew R. 1913. Repudiative questions in Greek drama, and in Plautus and Terence. Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 44: 43–64.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1914. The unity of the enclitic ne . Classical Philology 9(2): 174–188. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Banfi, Emanuele. 1997. Per l’etimologia di lat. ne, marca di interrogazione. In Miscillo flamine: studi in onore di Carmelo Rapisarda, Antonella Degl’Innocenti & Gabriella Moretti (eds), 45–51. Trento: Università degli studi di Trento.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barrios-Lech, Peter. 2016. Linguistic Interaction in Roman Comedy. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barsby, John. 1999. Terence, Eunuchus. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. Terence, 2 Vols [Loeb Classical Library]. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bodelot, Colette. 1987. L’interrogation indirecte en latin: Syntaxe, valeur illocutoire, formes. Louvain: Peeters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1990. Termes introducteurs et modes dans l’interrogation indirecte en latin de Plaute à Juvénal. Avignon: Aubanel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Calboli, Gualtiero. 1981. Le frasi interrogativo-esclamative e l’infinito. In Logos semantikos, studia linguistica in honorem Eugenio Coseriu, IV: Grammatik, Christian Rohrer (ed.), 133–153. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dunkel, George E. 2014. Lexikon der indogermanischen Partikeln und Pronominalstämme. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ernout, Alfred & Meillet, Antoine. 1985. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: Histoire des mots, 4th edn. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Freed, Alice F. 1994. The form and function of questions in informal dyadic conversation. Journal of Pragmatics 21(6): 621–644. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoff, François. 1984. Le système linguistique de l’interrogation en latin classique. In L’interrogation. Actes du colloque tenu les 19 et 20 décembre 1983 par le Département de linguistique de Paris-Sorbonne, Paul Valentin (ed.), 17–35. Paris: Université de Paris-Sorbonne.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hofmann, Johann Baptist & Szantyr, Anton. 1972. Lateinische Syntax und Stilistik. Munich: Beck.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Janson, Tore. 1979. Mechanisms of Language Change in Latin. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kauer, Robert, Lindsay, Wallace M. & Skutsch, Otto. 1958. P. Terenti Afri Comoediae. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroon, Caroline & Risselada, Rodie. 2002. Phasality, polarity, focality: A feature analysis of the Latin particle iam . Belgian Journal of Linguistics 16: 65–78.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kühner, Raphael & Stegmann, Carl. 1912–1914. Ausführliche Grammatik der lateinischen Sprache, Part II: Satzlehre, 2 Vols. Hannover: Hahn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
LASLA: Laboratoire d’Analyse Statistique des Langues Anciennes, Université de Liège. <[URL]>
Leo, Friedrich. 1895–1896. Plauti comoediae, 2 Vols. Berlin: Weidmann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
LLT: Library of Latin Texts (2013). Brepols, Turnhout [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lodge, Gonzalez. 1933. Lexicon Plautinum, Vol. 2. Leipzig: Teubner.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Melo, Wolfgang. 2011–2013. Plautus [Loeb Classical Library], 5 Vols. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morris, Edward P. 1889/90. On the sentence-question in Plautus and Terence. American Journal of Philology 10(4): 397–436, 11(1): 16–54, 11(2): 145–181. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Roman. 1997. Sprechen und Sprache: Dialoglinguistische Studien zu Terenz. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
OLD: P. Glare (ed.), Oxford Latin Dictionary (1968–1982). Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Orlandini, Anna. 2001. Négation et argumentation en latin [Grammaire Fondamentale du Latin 8]. Louvain: Peeters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pinkster, Harm. 2015. Oxford Latin Syntax, Vol. 1: The Simple Clause. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Richmond, Jan. 1965. A note on the elision of final ĕ in certain particles used by Latin poets. Glotta 43(1–2): 78–103.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Risselada, Rodie 1993. Imperatives and other Directive Expressions in Latin: A Study in the Pragmatics of a Dead Language. Amsterdam: J. C. Gieben.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Particles in questions. In Latina Lingua! Papers on grammar IX, Gualtiero Calboli (ed.), 663–679. Rome: Herder.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schrickx, Josine. 2014. 1. -ne. ThLL , Vol. 9(1): 260, 66–279, 49.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spevak, Olga. 2006. Les enclitiques en latin. Indogermanische Forschungen 111: 249–274.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Constituent Order in Classical Latin Prose [Studies in Language Companion Series 117]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
ThLL: Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900ff.). Leipzig/Munich: Teubner/De Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Vaan, Michiel. 2008. Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages [Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series]. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vairel-Carron, Hélène. 1975. Exclamation. Ordre et défense. Analyse de deux systèmes syntaxiques du latin. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Walde, Alois, & Hofmann, Johann Baptist. 1954. Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wingo Otha, E. 1972. Latin Punctuation in the Classical Age [Janua Linguarum Series Practica 133]. The Hague: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Ji, Yue
2023. Tangut 'ja¹ as a Constituent Question Particle. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 76:4 ► pp. 631 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 december 2025. 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.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue