An observation on the distribution of correlative relative clauses in Cicero

Abstract

This contribution presents an observation on the distribution of sentences with correlative relative clauses (also known as correlative sentences or relative-correlative sentences) in Cicero’s speeches: e.g. quae semper in ciuili uictoria sensimus, ea te uictore non uidimus (‘The things which we have always experienced in a civil war victory, those things we did not see when you were the victor’, Cicero, Deiot. 33). This construction occurs with considerably higher frequency in some speeches than others, and this variation turns out to be structured: in forensic speeches the frequency of the construction is inversely correlated with the length of the speech, while deliberative speeches appear to follow a different pattern. Focussing on forensic speeches in particular, this article argues that the distribution of correlative relative clauses in these speeches can be attributed to the way in which the construction helps to structure information, and the rhetorical purposes for which Cicero exploits this information-structuring device.