Latin Tense and Aspect in 3D

Simon Aerts is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Linguistics at Ghent University, Belgium.

"Latin Tense and Aspect in 3D advances our understanding of the meaning and usage of the Latin tense system; Aerts' work on Late Latin material is particularly valuable."Wolfgang de Melo – Professor of Classical Philology, Oxford University"In Latin Tense and Aspect in 3D, Simon Aerts presents an innovative, multidimensional perspective on tense and aspect, uniquely examined through the three metafunctions in Systemic Functional Linguistics. It is a groundbreaking addition to SFL and a comprehensive, insightful resource deepening our understanding of the functional richness of verbal categories in Latin."Miriam Taverniers - Professor of English Linguistics, Ghent University

• List of TablesList of FiguresPrefaceChapter 1 A modern approach to languages from the past 1.1 Introduction1.1.1 Latin: a tale of a lot more than one language1.1.2 Book structure 1.2 Case in point: the Latin tense system 1.2.1 Latin tense morphology 1.2.2 Latin tense semantics 1.2.3 Relative tense theory 1.2.4 Aspectual theory 1.3 Essential forms and functions 1.3.1 Verb tenses1.3.2 Tense1.3.3 Aspect 1.3.4 Aktionsart 1.3.5 Situations and events 1.3.6 Foreground-background 1.4 Systemic Functional Linguistics 1.4.1 Metafunctions 1.4.2 Stratification 1.4.3 Indeterminacy, choice and change 1.4.4 System networks and the cline of instantiation 1.5 Towards a 3D-approach to Latin tense and aspect 1.5.1 Multidimensional systems in SFL 1.5.2 Usage-based language data and the importance of context1.5.3 Audience involvement and its encoding in the lexicogrammar 1.5.4 Metafunctional levels of TENSE and ASPECT 1.5.5 Systematization of traditional labels NotesChapter 2 From theory to practice: an exposition and illustration of the applied methodology 2.1 Three-dimensional tense and aspect in Latin, Romance and English2.1.1 Tense2.1.2 Aspect 2.2 Historical pragmatics: problems and solutions 2.2.1 Aspects of working with closed-corpus languages 2.2.2 Towards an operationalization of pragmatic interpretations2.3 An exposition of the applied close-reading methodology NotesChapter 3 A corpus-based description of tense usage in Latin3.1 Foregrounded events and situations 3.1.1 The narrative perfect, the annalistic present and the historic present3.1.2 The scenic imperfect 3.1.3 The ingressive perfect and the complexive perfect 3.1.4 The perfect of success and the progressive imperfect 3.2 Simultaneous situations and events 3.2.1 The historic present and the narratorial perfect 3.2.2 The perfect of cessation 3.2.3 The circumstantial imperfect and simultaneous events 3.3 Anteriors and resultatives3.3.1 The pluperfect tense 3.3.2 The perfect and imperfect tenses with past anterior meaning 3.3.3 Past resultatives vs. past simultaneous situations 3.4 The narrative tenses in non-narrative discourse 3.4.1 Absolute past situations 3.4.2 The present perfect3.4.3 The actual, general and literary present and the present resultative 3.5 Marked textual meanings of the narrative tenses 3.5.1 The anticipatory present, the suspensive imperfect and the perfect of conclusion 3.5.2 The authorial present NotesChapter 4 Aspect in the Latin tense system: a matter of perspective4.1 The survival of aspect in the language of Gregory of Tours 4.2 Narrative perspectives: a linguistic and literary tradition 4.2.1 External perspectives: the voices of the narrator and the author 4.2.2 Internal perspectives: the illusion of unmediated truth 4.2.3 Eyewitness perspectives: showing vs. telling4.2.4 Temporal anomalies in the subjunctive: displacement encoded in the grammar NotesChapter 5 General conclusions Chapter 6 References 6.1 Primary sources 6.2 Secondary sourcesIndex