Between Linguistics and Stylistics: Nominal Compounding and Literary Genre in Latin

After having collected linguistic data from the 3rd century B.C. to the 5th century A.D., we worked out a typological classification of Latin nominal compounds based on a simplified Construction Grammar perspective. Then, we looked for links between the different types of compounds and the literary genre of the text in which they are used. The analysis shows that certain types of compounds (i.e. bahuvrīhi and most of nomina agentis) are mainly attested in high poetry, especially epics, while other types (i.e. nomina actionis and nominal abstracta) are primarily used in prose. This proves that, although morphological constructions are abstract entities whose existence in the linguistic competence of the speakers may only be supposed, they produce evident consequences in the stylistic nature of Latin literary texts.