Vincoli testuali e funzioni dei segnali discorsivi in Gellio

Abstract

A prototype taxonomic model is applied to Aulus Gellius’noctes Atticae, a miscellaneous work of the 2nd century, in order to better analyzing the specific features of a polymorphic text, wich is not adequately dealt with by using traditional classifications. The reference of Gellius to his sources is in fact dynamic, based not on mimetic intentions but on a blend of different kind of report and different text parts, namely incipit, quotation, commentary, narration, dialog. The strict relationship between text types and linguistic devices is investigated as a recursive feature, focusing on discourse particles, wich both indicate the interactional development and impose an internal textual hierarchy. Nam and sed perform a significant function in the commentaries and in several short chapters of noctes Atticae, and in this function they cannot be replaced by other coniunctiones, wich belong to the same class in the normative latin grammars (respectively, nam and enim to the causal, and at, autem, sed to the adversative class). Discourse particles seem to reflect the kind of text: while in the narrative structure discourse particles do not occur, in the incipit and quotations metatextual discourse particles are prevalent; in commentaries and dialogs interactional discourse particles signal both agreement and disagreement.