This article intends to investigate those Latin structures that prelude to Romance phrasal verbs. After having defined the object of study and having shown the Italian and Friulian data (§ 1), the various explanations of the phenomenon are presented, i.e. the Germanic hypothesis, the evolution within the framework of Greenberg’s typology, and the opposition between satellite-framed and verb-framed languages according to Talmy’s theory (§ 2). Then, the use of the adverb foras in Latin authors from the archaic period to late antiquity is analyzed in detail, trying to elaborate general lines of diachronic, sociolinguistic and stylistic variation (§ 3). Finally, a new interpretation of the constructions of movement verbs modified with prefixes, complements and adverbs is proposed, by means of the formalization of three lexico-sitnactic structures that follow one another along the entire span of the history of Latin (§ 4). The conclusion is that the last phase, although still compatible with classical Latin grammar, represents the premise for the development of Romance phrasal verbs (§ 5).
