Left-Dislocation in Republican Prose

The two previous chapters have explored left-dislocation and related constructions in two genres that are both products of special circumstances. Chapter 3 is predominantly about the language of one individual, who, for all we know,may have been an idiosyncratic language user. Because of this, there will always remain some uncertainty concerning the degree to which observations on Plautus can be held representative for the Latin of that period. The form of Latin preserved in the statutes and other legal inscriptions, on the other hand, is somewhat removed from common language usage due to their specialized content and tradition. The texts discussed in this chapter naturally have their own special character as well, but it is possible that, at least occasionally, the language of early republican prose allows for a more direct observation of the types of constructions that may have enjoyed currency outside of this particular text type. Equally, however, the questions of register and stylistic connotations are not simple in this part of thematerial. Both Cato andVarro wrote instructions on agriculture in a technical register. In Cato, this is combinedwith features of archaic syntax. In Varro, on the other hand, his agricultural treatise shows the same characteristics of his idiosyncratic style as De lingua Latina. The historical and oratorical works, on the other hand,maybe the closest to a ‘neutral register’ in the present corpus. The prose texts discussed in this chapter are divided into three parts. I begin with an analysis of M. Porcius Cato and his De agricultura (5.2). I then look at (the fragments of) Roman orators and historians (5.3), finishing with a discussion of Varro’s De re rustica and De lingua latina (5.4).