Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.

As regards participles, solecisms occur in case and gender as with nouns, in tense as with verbs, and in number as in both. The pronoun admits of solecisms in gender, number and case.

Solecisms also occur with great frequency in connexion with parts of speech: but a bare statement on this point is not sufficient, as it may lead a boy to think that such error consists only in the substitution of one part of speech for another, as for instance if a verb is placed where we require a noun, or an adverb takes the place of a pronoun and so on.

For there are some nouns which are cognate, that is to say of the same genus, and he who uses the wrong species [*](e.g. intus for intro, the genus being adverbs of place. ) in connexion with one of these will be guilty of the same offence as if he were to change the genus. Thus an and aut are conjunctions, but it would be bad Latin to say in a question hic and ille sit [*]( For hic an ille sit? ) ;

ne and

v1-3 p.103

non are adverbs: but he who says non feceris in lieu of ne feceris, is guilty of a similar mistake, since one negative denies, while the other forbids. Further intro and intus are adverbs of place, but eo intus and intro sum are solecisms.

Similar errors may be committed in connexion with the various kinds of pronouns, interjections and prepositions. It is also a solecism [*]( The meaning of this passage is uncertain, but the solecism in question is probably an anacoluthon. ) if there is a disagreement between what precedes and what follows within the limits of a single clause.