Early Latin lexicon in Terence (and Plautus)

The aim of this chapter is to analyse the constructions with support verb (like verba facere, consilium capere, in memoria habere, etc.) in Plautus and Terence, as well as to highlight, among other aspects, their frequency of use, syntactic types, and which are the most common verbs and constructions. At the same time, the comparison between Plautus and Terence and, above all, between early Latin and a selected corpus of classical Latin prose (Caesar, Cicero, Sallust and Livy) and poetry (Virgil and Ovid) will allow me (i) to demonstrate the process of grammaticalization and renewal of these analytic expressions, (ii) to refine the widespread idea that the constructions with support verb are a characteristic of colloquial Latin, and finally (iii) to determine whether early Latin has its own peculiarities in the use of these complex expressions.