What the study found
The study argues that Latin volo, meaning “to want,” also had reportative uses, where speakers attributed beliefs, opinions, or statements to an outside source. These uses are said to be present from at least the first century BCE.
Why the authors say this matters
The authors conclude that Latin volo offers new evidence for a broader pathway from volition, or wanting, to evidentiality, which is the marking of how information was obtained. They also place this development alongside German wollen and, to a lesser extent, French vouloir.
What the researchers tested
The researcher carried out a corpus-based study of Latin volo across texts from the third century BCE to the second century CE. The analysis focused on third-person present-tense forms, vult and volunt, and examined their semantic, pragmatic, and morphosyntactic properties, as well as their historical development.
What worked and what didn't
Reportative volo is described as emerging from ambiguous contexts where volition and doxastic stance, meaning belief-related positioning, overlap. The abstract says this is especially visible in small-clause constructions with subject coreferentiality or passive infinitives of verbs of opinion, and proposes that the doxastic component becomes explicit as the subject is reinterpreted as an evidential source.
What to keep in mind
The summary only reflects the abstract, so the detailed evidence and full argument are not available here. The claim is based on a corpus study centered on specific Latin forms and time periods, so the findings are limited to that scope.
Key points
- Latin volo is argued to have reportative uses, not only volitional ones.
- These reportative uses are said to appear from at least the first century BCE.
- The study focuses on the third-person present forms vult and volunt in a corpus from the third century BCE to the second century CE.
- Ambiguous contexts linking wanting and belief are described as the source of the reportative reading.
- The authors compare Latin volo with German wollen and French vouloir in a broader grammaticalization path.
Disclosure
- Research title:
- Latin volo had reportative uses from at least the first century BCE
- Authors:
- Francesca Dell’Oro
- Institutions:
- University of Bologna
- Publication date:
- 2026-04-06
- OpenAlex record:
- View
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