LEHMANN, Chr.,
Latein mit abstrakten Strukturen.
Wilhelm Fink Verlag, München, 1973. 207p. Paperback. Offset print. With gift intention from the author on half title. Series: Structura, Band 7. 'It is a serious piece of work. (...) Lehmann aims first of all at giving a descriptively adequate treatment of conditional and related sentences in Latin, and secondly at offering a consistent theory which might explain synchronically the phenomena observed. The analysis is both syntactic and semantic, the framework is that of generative semantics and Lehmann makes frequent use of both the much sicussed distinction between assertion and presupposition of a sentence (...) and of abstract verbs which may be introduced at a deeper level to account for some facts of surface structure (...). The particular model which Lehmann tries to follow and to develop is that first summarized by Hansjakob Seiler in an article on 'Abstract structures for moods in Greek' ('Language' 47, 1971). The exposition is clear - though not always easy - and some of the conclusions impressive. In particular Lehmann makes a good case for recognizing in Latin some deeper affinities between (i) conditional and optative, (ii) conditional and interrogative, and (iii) conditional, causal, and concessive sentences.' (A. MORPURGO DAVIES in The Classical Review (New Series), 1976, p. 285).
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