Tracing the Value of Syntactic Parameters in Ancient Languages: The Latin Nominal Phrase

In this work the internal structure of the nominal phrase in Latin is investigated within a framework of parametric typology. In particular, this research is concerned with facts related to word order within the nominal phrase, such as the position(s) of the genitive case and the syntax of adjectival modification. It will be argued that a heuristic procedure, consisting of the parametric typology here proposed and a set of techniques developed in order to detect the values of parameters over written closed corpora, is able to capture some generalizations about Latin nominal syntax and, thus, qualifies as suitable for the purpose of syntactic comparison among ancient Indo-European languages.