About Latin <i>Ecce</i> ‘Behold! Lo! See! There!’ and Some Ancient Languages Presentatives

Marie-Ange Julia

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13

| Peer-Reviewed

About Latin Ecce ‘Behold! Lo! See! There!’ and Some Ancient Languages Presentatives

Marie-Ange Julia

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 8, Issue 1)

Received: 19 December 2019 Accepted: 18 January 2020 Published: 4 February 2020

Views: Downloads:

Download PDF

Share This Article

Twitter
Linked In
Facebook

Abstract

In this study, which is part of a larger research project on dialogue, the author deals with “little words” (as they are often called). These common and polyfunctional words seldom appear in grammars and are only dealt with within short lemmata in dictionaries. Presentatives, such as Fr. voici / voilà, Lat. ecce, Gr. ἰδού “Here is, lo!”, form an independent grammatical class which needs to be defined, firstly, in a genetic approach. The author starts with the enumeration of ancient languages presentatives, classifies them according to their etymology and goes on to study Latin ecce in particular. This classification shows two structures: most ancient language presentatives come from a grammaticalized form of the imperative form of a verb requiring a visual or tactile perception; other presentatives are based on a demonstrative theme or a particle agglutination. Only Latin ecce remains unclear in spite of the many assumptions that have already been proposed. In addition, while all the other presentatives are often grammaticalized with a second-person pronoun, the sequence ecce + tibi is not attested in archaic Latin and does not even function as a pure presentative: the structure ecce me is used for self-presentation. In reality, while all the other presentatives are allocentric, ecce is egocentric. The author concludes that ecce is related to ego ‘I’. This particularity can help us both reconstruct the etymology of this word and define the presentation it expresses, thus enabling us to understand how ecce fundamentally illustrates the inscription of the dialogue within morphology.

Published in	International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 8, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13
Page(s)	17-23
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Presentatives, Presentation, Grammaticalization, Pragmaticalization, Deixis, Morphology, Dialogue

References

[1]	Iliescu, M. (2008). Marqueurs discursifs d’appel. In Ladinometria. Festschrift für Hans Goebl zum 65, ed. G. Blaikner-Hohenwart & alii, Salzburg, p. 141-158.
[2]	Julia, M.-A. (2018). Les présentatifs dans les langues anciennes et modernes. Éditions universitaires européennes.
[3]	Iliescu, M. (2010). "Observations sur les présentatifs français voici et voilà et leurs correspondants roumains". In Wenn Deiktika nicht zeigen: zeigende und nichtzeigende Funktionen deiktischer Formen in den romanischen Sprachen, ed. C. Maaß et A. Schrott, Berlin, p. 205-222.
[4]	Petit, D. (2010a). "On presentative particles in the Baltic languages". In Particles and Connectives in Baltic, ed. N. Nau et N. Ostrowski, Vilnius, p. 151-170.
[5]	Petit, D. (2010b). "Old Lithuanian añskat, šìskat, tàskat and cognates". Acta Linguistica Lithuanica [Vilnius], volume 62-63, p. 11-25.
[6]	Thurneysen, R. (19662). A Grammar of Old Irish. Dublin.
[7]	Oréal, E. (2011). Les particules en égyptien ancien. De l’ancien égyptien à l’égyptien classique. Le Caire.
[8]	Klingenschmitt, G. (1982). Das altarmenische Verbum, Wiesbaden.
[9]	Gardiner, A. (19573). Egyptian Grammar. Oxford.
[10]	Takács, G. (2007). Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian, Volume Three m-. Leiden.
[11]	Puhvel, J. (1984). Hittite Etymological Dictionary. Berlin/New York.
[12]	Köhler, A. (1893). "Zur Etymologie und Syntax von ecce und em". Archiv fur lateinische Lexicographie und Grammatik, volume 8, p. 221-234.
[13]	Berenguer Sánchez, J. A. (2000). Estudio sobre las partículas indoeuropeas con base consonántica y laringal. Madrid.
[14]	Fruyt, M. (1996). "Origine de la négation nē dans lat. nē... quidem, nēquam, nēquīquam. Revue de linguistique latine du Centre Alfred Ernout De lingua Latina, volume 1. Onligne.
[15]	IEW = Pokorny, J. (1959). Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Bern.
[16]	Rabatel, A. (2001). “Valeurs énonciative et représentative des ’présentatifs’ c’est, il y a, voici/voilà: effet point de vue et argumentativité indirecte du récit". Revue de Sémantique et Pragmatique, volume 9, p. 111-144.
[17]	Pinault, G.-J. (1989). Introduction au tokharien. Lalies, volume 7, p. 5-224.
[18]	Krause, W. et Thomas, W. (1960). Tocharisches Elementarbuch. Heidelberg.
[19]	de Vaan, M. (2008). Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages. Leiden/Boston.
[20]	Morel, M.-A. (1992). Les présentatifs en français. In La deixis, dir. M.-A. Morel et L. Danon-Boileau, Paris, p. 507-518.
[21]	Berthoud, A.-Cl. (1996). Paroles à propos: approche énonciative et interactive du topic. Gap/Paris.
[22]	Oppermann-Marsaux, E. (2006). "Les origines du présentatif voici/voilà et son évolution jusqu’à la fin du XVIe siècle". Langue française, volume 149/1, p. 77-91.
[23]	Benveniste, É. (1974). Problèmes de linguistique générale, II, V L’appareil formel de l’énonciation. Paris, p. 79-88.
[24]	Friedrich, J. (1974). Hethitisches Elementarbuch. Heidelberg.
[25]	Markey, T. (1980). "Deixis and Diathesis: The case of the Greek k-perfect". Indogermanische Forschungen, volume 85, p. 279-297.
[26]	Dik, S. C. (1997). The Theory of Functional Grammar (Part I: The Structure of the Clause). Berlin.

Cite This Article

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Marie-Ange Julia. (2020). About Latin Ecce ‘Behold! Lo! See! There!’ and Some Ancient Languages Presentatives. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 8(1), 17-23. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Marie-Ange Julia. About Latin Ecce ‘Behold! Lo! See! There!’ and Some Ancient Languages Presentatives. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2020, 8(1), 17-23. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Marie-Ange Julia. About Latin Ecce ‘Behold! Lo! See! There!’ and Some Ancient Languages Presentatives. Int J Lang Linguist. 2020;8(1):17-23. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13,
  author = {Marie-Ange Julia},
  title = {About Latin Ecce ‘Behold! Lo! See! There!’ and Some Ancient Languages Presentatives},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {8},
  number = {1},
  pages = {17-23},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20200801.13},
  abstract = {In this study, which is part of a larger research project on dialogue, the author deals with “little words” (as they are often called). These common and polyfunctional words seldom appear in grammars and are only dealt with within short lemmata in dictionaries. Presentatives, such as Fr. voici / voilà, Lat. ecce, Gr. ἰδού “Here is, lo!”, form an independent grammatical class which needs to be defined, firstly, in a genetic approach. The author starts with the enumeration of ancient languages presentatives, classifies them according to their etymology and goes on to study Latin ecce in particular. This classification shows two structures: most ancient language presentatives come from a grammaticalized form of the imperative form of a verb requiring a visual or tactile perception; other presentatives are based on a demonstrative theme or a particle agglutination. Only Latin ecce remains unclear in spite of the many assumptions that have already been proposed. In addition, while all the other presentatives are often grammaticalized with a second-person pronoun, the sequence ecce + tibi is not attested in archaic Latin and does not even function as a pure presentative: the structure ecce me is used for self-presentation. In reality, while all the other presentatives are allocentric, ecce is egocentric. The author concludes that ecce is related to ego ‘I’. This particularity can help us both reconstruct the etymology of this word and define the presentation it expresses, thus enabling us to understand how ecce fundamentally illustrates the inscription of the dialogue within morphology.},
 year = {2020}
}

Copy | Download

TY - JOUR
T1 - About Latin Ecce ‘Behold! Lo! See! There!’ and Some Ancient Languages Presentatives
AU - Marie-Ange Julia
Y1 - 2020/02/04
PY - 2020
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13
DO - 10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13
T2 - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP - 17
EP - 23
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2330-0221
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13
AB - In this study, which is part of a larger research project on dialogue, the author deals with “little words” (as they are often called). These common and polyfunctional words seldom appear in grammars and are only dealt with within short lemmata in dictionaries. Presentatives, such as Fr. voici / voilà, Lat. ecce, Gr. ἰδού “Here is, lo!”, form an independent grammatical class which needs to be defined, firstly, in a genetic approach. The author starts with the enumeration of ancient languages presentatives, classifies them according to their etymology and goes on to study Latin ecce in particular. This classification shows two structures: most ancient language presentatives come from a grammaticalized form of the imperative form of a verb requiring a visual or tactile perception; other presentatives are based on a demonstrative theme or a particle agglutination. Only Latin ecce remains unclear in spite of the many assumptions that have already been proposed. In addition, while all the other presentatives are often grammaticalized with a second-person pronoun, the sequence ecce + tibi is not attested in archaic Latin and does not even function as a pure presentative: the structure ecce me is used for self-presentation. In reality, while all the other presentatives are allocentric, ecce is egocentric. The author concludes that ecce is related to ego ‘I’. This particularity can help us both reconstruct the etymology of this word and define the presentation it expresses, thus enabling us to understand how ecce fundamentally illustrates the inscription of the dialogue within morphology.
VL - 8
IS - 1
ER -

Copy | Download

Author Information

Marie-Ange Julia

Lycée Henri-IV, Center Alfred Ernout, University of Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, France

Download PDF

Sections

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Marie-Ange Julia. (2020). About Latin Ecce ‘Behold! Lo! See! There!’ and Some Ancient Languages Presentatives. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 8(1), 17-23. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Marie-Ange Julia. About Latin Ecce ‘Behold! Lo! See! There!’ and Some Ancient Languages Presentatives. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2020, 8(1), 17-23. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Marie-Ange Julia. About Latin Ecce ‘Behold! Lo! See! There!’ and Some Ancient Languages Presentatives. Int J Lang Linguist. 2020;8(1):17-23. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13,
  author = {Marie-Ange Julia},
  title = {About Latin Ecce ‘Behold! Lo! See! There!’ and Some Ancient Languages Presentatives},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {8},
  number = {1},
  pages = {17-23},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20200801.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20200801.13},
  abstract = {In this study, which is part of a larger research project on dialogue, the author deals with “little words” (as they are often called). These common and polyfunctional words seldom appear in grammars and are only dealt with within short lemmata in dictionaries. Presentatives, such as Fr. voici / voilà, Lat. ecce, Gr. ἰδού “Here is, lo!”, form an independent grammatical class which needs to be defined, firstly, in a genetic approach. The author starts with the enumeration of ancient languages presentatives, classifies them according to their etymology and goes on to study Latin ecce in particular. This classification shows two structures: most ancient language presentatives come from a grammaticalized form of the imperative form of a verb requiring a visual or tactile perception; other presentatives are based on a demonstrative theme or a particle agglutination. Only Latin ecce remains unclear in spite of the many assumptions that have already been proposed. In addition, while all the other presentatives are often grammaticalized with a second-person pronoun, the sequence ecce + tibi is not attested in archaic Latin and does not even function as a pure presentative: the structure ecce me is used for self-presentation. In reality, while all the other presentatives are allocentric, ecce is egocentric. The author concludes that ecce is related to ego ‘I’. This particularity can help us both reconstruct the etymology of this word and define the presentation it expresses, thus enabling us to understand how ecce fundamentally illustrates the inscription of the dialogue within morphology.},
 year = {2020}
}

Copy | Download