Journal of Linguistics

Table of Contents - March 2011 - Volume 47, Issue 01  

Research Article

The floating C-Place node in Latin1

ANDRÁS CSERa1 c1

a1 Institute of English and American Studies, Pázmány Péter Catholic University & Research Institute for Linguistics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

In this paper it is argued that there existed, in a certain period of the history of Latin, a floating C-Place node in some lexical items in word- and stem-initial position. Notably, this was involved in the phonological representation of the words written – in an archaising fashion – with initial 〈gn〉. Based on a thorough analysis of the Brepols Corpus (CLCLT-5) it is demonstrated that the diachronic distribution of the prefixed forms of 〈gn〉-initial stems shows restrictions that can only be explained if one assumes a geometric representation involving a floating C-Place node that remained in the place of the original velar stop inherited from Proto-Indo-European. By classical times this floating node was also lost, and thus the possibilities for combining prefixes with original 〈gn〉-initial stems expanded.

(Received August 25 2009)

(Revised February 26 2010)

(Online publication April 06 2010)

Correspondence:

c1 Author's address: Institute of English and American Studies, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Egyetem u. 1., 2081 Piliscsaba, Hungary cser.andras@btk.ppke.hu

Footnotes

[1] My thanks must go to Péter Szigetvári, Béla Adamik, Péter Siptár and two anonymous JL referees, who have made valuable comments on the paper during its preparation. This article was written as part of a project supported by the Bolyai Scholarship.