THOUGHTS ON PLAUTINE STYLE, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ARCHAISM AND COLLOQUIALISM
THOUGHTS ON PLAUTINE STYLE, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ARCHAISM AND COLLOQUIALISM

Summary/Abstract: This article aims to examine Plautine style systematically, based on distributional criteria and statistics. It looks at the various means that Plautus can utilize in order to characterize a passage as archaic or colloquial. When Plautus wants to sound old-fashioned, he relies on morphology, while he has more varied ways of marking a passage as colloquial. There is a reason for this asymmetry: speakers of any language have access to colloquial registers on a day-to-day basis and can draw on phonology, morphology, and syntax, but archaic registers are acquired from written sources, and here it is morphology that stands out to readers.

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