Gerundial constructions, stylistic variation and linguistic change between Latin and Romance: Evidence from the Codex diplomaticus Cavensis

Abstract

Abstract This paper aims to examine gerundial constructions found in some ninth-century legal documents produced in the Lombard duchy of Salerno and passed down by the so-called Codex diplomaticus Cavensis. Special attention is devoted to three kinds of constructions: the complement gerund governed by nouns, the gerund of purpose, and the adverbial gerund. In the first two of these syntactic domains, the variation between both different types of gerundial structures and infinitive constructions is analyzed, enabling us to observe both the spectrum of syntactic variability of the gerund and the dynamics of variation between these two verbal moods. To interpret this alternation, especially on dependence on nouns, a crucial role is played by sociolinguistic factors. In the last of the mentioned domains, the alternation between gerund and present participle is investigated.