Annachiara Clementelli

The aim of this project is to analyze the transformations of the gerund in the Latin ablative. While the starting point—primarily nominal behavior in the archaic and classical periods—and the endpoint—mainly verbal behavior in the Romance languages that retain it—are well known, the transition between these two forms remains unexplored. This transition must have already begun in Latin, as suggested by the semantic (broadening of meaning) and syntactic (increased internal syntactic complexity) transformations to which the gerund in the Latin ablative is subject. This study aims to analyze these transformations through a quantitative and qualitative investigation of a large corpus of texts (3rd century BC – 6th century AD), offering innovative contributions to Latin and Romance linguistics.