The origin of subjunctive complement clauses in Latin

• Grant number: 23/13142-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: May 01, 2024
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Classical Languages
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Sérgio de Vasconcellos
• Grantee: Alex Mazzanti Júnior
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research proposes a diachronic study about the pre-history of Latin subjunctive complement clauses. Using an innovative methodology, I intend to put forward a stronger hypothesis to the etymology of the conjunction ut, which is the main way to introduce Latin complement clauses. Such a methodology was inspired by Luján & Chala (2020), but was further adapted to internal reconstruction of Latin, and consists of recognizing the thematic roles associated with ut and verifying which is possibly the most original, by means of well-known linguistic changes. We will be able thus to obtain a new kind of information which has never been considered in the etymological hypothesis of ut, so that we can obtain a stronger and more likely hypothesis. After that, the synchronic results about complement clauses that I obtained in my doctoral research will be taken into account, in order to come up with hypotheses to the origin of Latin complement clauses, with and without complementizer, that may overcome difficulties found in still accepted hypotheses (e.g. Hofmann & Szantyr 1965). This will be done by means of a rigorous linguistic study, supported by a wide theoretical basis in diachronic syntax, following e.g. principles discussed by Gildea et al. (2020). In an eventual internship abroad, I will pursue the same research questions in the Sabellic languages, which are important members of the Italic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The systematic comparison of the results obtained for these languages with those obtained for Latin will provide us with the most complete synchronic and diachronic overview of complement clauses in the Italic languages, something unseen in the international literature.