TY - JOUR

T1 - Qui pro quo in Plautus’ grammar

AU - Желтова, Елена Владимировна

N1 - Conference code: 14

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Qui pro quo is an excellent means of creating a comic effect in ancient drama, particularly in the comedies of Plautus. In this study, qui pro quo is metaphorically transferred from drama to grammar and applied to the phenomenon of substituting one grammatical category for another. First, I will introduce the notion of canonical and non-canonical grammatical meaning, which is crucial for the idea of grammatical qui pro quo. The concept of oppositions and neutralisation will be proposed as a scientific hypothesis to explain why language employs this strategy. Then I will analyse the qui pro quo technique within the categories of tense and mood (e.g., Praesens pro futuro, Futurum pro praesente, Imperfectum pro praesente, Indicativus pro coniunctivo, Infinitivus pro indicativo, Indicativus pro imperativo, etc., nine patterns in all). After considering verbal categories, the sentential qui pro quo will be observed in five types of sentences with different illocutionary force. Finally, the effect of the phenomenon in question on the insubordinate ut-, si-, and quasi-clauses will be shown. In the end, I will summarise the findings and explain the mechanism of grammatical qui pro quo as manifestation of the neutralisation principle.

AB - Qui pro quo is an excellent means of creating a comic effect in ancient drama, particularly in the comedies of Plautus. In this study, qui pro quo is metaphorically transferred from drama to grammar and applied to the phenomenon of substituting one grammatical category for another. First, I will introduce the notion of canonical and non-canonical grammatical meaning, which is crucial for the idea of grammatical qui pro quo. The concept of oppositions and neutralisation will be proposed as a scientific hypothesis to explain why language employs this strategy. Then I will analyse the qui pro quo technique within the categories of tense and mood (e.g., Praesens pro futuro, Futurum pro praesente, Imperfectum pro praesente, Indicativus pro coniunctivo, Infinitivus pro indicativo, Indicativus pro imperativo, etc., nine patterns in all). After considering verbal categories, the sentential qui pro quo will be observed in five types of sentences with different illocutionary force. Finally, the effect of the phenomenon in question on the insubordinate ut-, si-, and quasi-clauses will be shown. In the end, I will summarise the findings and explain the mechanism of grammatical qui pro quo as manifestation of the neutralisation principle.

KW - covert linguistic categories

KW - grammatical semantics

KW - language of Plautus

KW - neutralisation of the oppositions

KW - pragmatics

KW - Latin

U2 - 10.1515/joll-2024-2003

DO - 10.1515/joll-2024-2003

M3 - Conference article

VL - 23

SP - 213

EP - 241

JO - Journal of Latin Linguistics

JF - Journal of Latin Linguistics

SN - 2194-8739

IS - 1-2

T2 - 14th Internatonal Colloquium on Late and Vulgar Latin “Latin Vulgaire – Latin Tardif–2022”

Y2 - 5 September 2022 through 9 September 2022

ER -