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Servientia servanda : a functionalist and quantitative approach to the survival of grammatical aspect in the language of Gregory of Tours

Simon Aerts (UGent)
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Abstract
Interpreting grammatical aspect as a category that conveys meaning on three dimensions might serve to better understand and appreciate the semantic potential of the narrative tenses in Latin historiography. Similarly to Livy's, Gregory of Tours' language features a number of 'tense uses' where aspect plays a decisive role. However, the rise of morphological innovations (e.g. deletus fuerat) reveals processes of specialization of the old (plu)perfect tenses regarding residual aspectual meanings such as resultativity. On the whole, a quantitative comparison with data from Livy indicates a slight decline in the relevance of grammatical aspect over the course of six centuries, suggesting that grammatical aspect was disappearing, if only gradually, from the semantic potential of the narrative tenses. In any case, plenty of Late Latin illustrations of the relevance of aspect confirm that at an earlier (Classical) stage of that diachronic evolution, aspect should not be denied its role in the tense system.
Keywords
Late Latin, Gregory of Tours, tense and aspect, narrative tenses, perspective, functional linguistics

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MLA
Aerts, Simon. “Servientia Servanda : A Functionalist and Quantitative Approach to the Survival of Grammatical Aspect in the Language of Gregory of Tours.” REVUE BELGE DE PHILOLOGIE ET D HISTOIRE, vol. 99, no. 1, 2021, pp. 161–96, doi:10.3406/rbph.2021.9627.
APA
Aerts, S. (2021). Servientia servanda : a functionalist and quantitative approach to the survival of grammatical aspect in the language of Gregory of Tours. REVUE BELGE DE PHILOLOGIE ET D HISTOIRE, 99(1), 161–196. https://doi.org/10.3406/rbph.2021.9627
Chicago author-date
Aerts, Simon. 2021. “Servientia Servanda : A Functionalist and Quantitative Approach to the Survival of Grammatical Aspect in the Language of Gregory of Tours.” REVUE BELGE DE PHILOLOGIE ET D HISTOIRE 99 (1): 161–96. https://doi.org/10.3406/rbph.2021.9627.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Aerts, Simon. 2021. “Servientia Servanda : A Functionalist and Quantitative Approach to the Survival of Grammatical Aspect in the Language of Gregory of Tours.” REVUE BELGE DE PHILOLOGIE ET D HISTOIRE 99 (1): 161–196. doi:10.3406/rbph.2021.9627.
Vancouver
1.
Aerts S. Servientia servanda : a functionalist and quantitative approach to the survival of grammatical aspect in the language of Gregory of Tours. REVUE BELGE DE PHILOLOGIE ET D HISTOIRE. 2021;99(1):161–96.
IEEE
[1]
S. Aerts, “Servientia servanda : a functionalist and quantitative approach to the survival of grammatical aspect in the language of Gregory of Tours,” REVUE BELGE DE PHILOLOGIE ET D HISTOIRE, vol. 99, no. 1, pp. 161–196, 2021.
@article{8680249,
  abstract     = {{Interpreting grammatical aspect as a category that conveys meaning on three dimensions might serve to better understand and appreciate the semantic potential of the narrative tenses in Latin historiography. Similarly to Livy's, Gregory of Tours' language features a number of 'tense uses' where aspect plays a decisive role. However, the rise of morphological innovations (e.g. deletus fuerat) reveals processes of specialization of the old (plu)perfect tenses regarding residual aspectual meanings such as resultativity. On the whole, a quantitative comparison with data from Livy indicates a slight decline in the relevance of grammatical aspect over the course of six centuries, suggesting that grammatical aspect was disappearing, if only gradually, from the semantic potential of the narrative tenses. In any case, plenty of Late Latin illustrations of the relevance of aspect confirm that at an earlier (Classical) stage of that diachronic evolution, aspect should not be denied its role in the tense system.}},
  author       = {{Aerts, Simon}},
  issn         = {{0035-0818}},
  journal      = {{REVUE BELGE DE PHILOLOGIE ET D HISTOIRE}},
  keywords     = {{Late Latin,Gregory of Tours,tense and aspect,narrative tenses,perspective,functional linguistics}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{161--196}},
  title        = {{Servientia servanda : a functionalist and quantitative approach to the survival of grammatical aspect in the language of Gregory of Tours}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.3406/rbph.2021.9627}},
  volume       = {{99}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}

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