Core and Periphery in the Latin Noun Phrase

In this paper it is tackled the issue of Latin nominal syntax. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, we offer an overview of previous literature, showing how different approaches in the course of last century have highlighted different aspects of noun phrase syntax in Latin. In the second part, we first sketch a generative approach of the unmarked order in the Latin noun phrase and then we turn to observe marked orders. We propose that marked orders can be accounted for by assuming that the noun phrase, parallel to sentences, has a left peripheral position which can host constituents moved for interpretive reasons. The aim of this study is twofold. On the one hand we want to introduce a recent formalism into the empirical domain of Latin syntax, and consequently support recent approaches to noun phrase structure, showing how they can capture Latin data with no further assumption. On the other hand, having assessed the structure for the unmarked word order in the Latin noun phrase we can start a project of research on the very many marked orders of Latin, which may at first sight challenge a structural analysis.