"Any verb form of Classical Latin can be assigned to one of the three stems: the infectum-stem, the perfectum-stem, or the supine-stem. In Archaic Latin, on the other hand, there are also verb forms which do not belong to these stems, the so-called extra-paradigmatic forms. Such forms are at the heart of Wolfgang de Melo's study, which asks what they mean, how they are used, and what they go back to. Since their meaning is best examined by contrasting them with the regular forms, the first part of the book discusses selected problems of the regular verbal system of Archaic Latin. In the second part, the meaning of the extra-paradigmatic forms is established by contrasting them with the regular ones. The third part goes beyond Archaic Latin, not only examining the origins of the extra-paradigmatic forms, but outlining their survival after the archaic period. The meaning and use of the forms in Archaic Latin provides the basis for both types of diachronic study."--Jacket.