The position of Focus constituents in Latin: A comparison between Latin and Czech

This article deals with the position and the identification of Focus constituents in Latin, a ‘free’ constituent language known only through written texts. Three instances are analysed: entities that are newly introduced into the discourse, and obligatory arguments of the verbs “to leave” (proficiscor) and “to send” (mitto) in classical Latin prose (Caesar, Civil war and Sallust, The Iugurthine War) in order to observe whether constituents are positioned according to the principle of ‘communicative dynamism’ as described by Firbas (1992), and claimed for Latin by Panhuis (1982). Latin examples are compared with their translations into Czech, a modern ‘free’ constituent order Slavic language obeying the above-mentioned principle. The confrontation reveals several differences between Latin and Czech concerning not only the position of Focus constituents but also their anaphoric continuation and the position of anaphoric pronouns in the sentence.