«Vicious» or «selected»? The linguosemantics of dispondee ending in Cicero's In Catilinam

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of "heavy" clauses, i.e. the rhythmics of dyspondee [– – – x], molossus and spondee [– – – – x] and creticus and molossus [– ᴗ – – – x ] at the end of the period in classical Latin prose on the material of Cicero's speeches "Against Catilina". The first paragraph, containing a brief outline of the history of the study of metric clauses, is generally devoted to two different approaches to the study of such rhythmic structures, namely the method of A. Bornecque, who called such clauses "vicious" and subjected some of them to conjuncture, and the teaching of Th. Zielinski, who distinguished them into a special class of "selected". As a result, the question of an alternative approach to the study of clauses is raised. В The second paragraph contains an analysis of the dyspondean clauses in Cicero's speeches "Against Catilina" regarding the frequency and place of their use in pericopes; the analysis uses a new methodology for studying the rhythm of prose developed by the author of the article. The relatively high frequency of heavy clauses indicates their essential role in the rhythmic organization of the text, and Cicero's desire to avoid such clauses at the end of super-phrasal units indicates their associative connection with the continuation of thought. Based on the data obtained, conclusions are drawn about the specific role of "heavy" clauses in the logical division of the text, which indicates the truth of Zielinski's theory.