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The me pudet construction in the history of Latin

why and how fast non-canonical subjects come and go
  • Chiara Fedriani
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The Diachronic Typology of Non-Canonical Subjects
This chapter is in the book The Diachronic Typology of Non-Canonical Subjects

Abstract

In this paper I investigate the diachronic development and downfall of the meACCpudet3SG ‘I am ashamed’ construction in Latin, with a view to exploring the factors that played a significant role in the process of constructional analogization that lead this impersonal pattern to be reinterpreted as personal and transitive over centuries. By comparing the kind of stimuli typically associated with the pudet-type verbs and their specific meaning, I show that they differ in view of different degrees of agentivity and volitionality exerted by the experiencer. Paenitet ‘to repent’ reveals itself as being the most agentive verb and this is why it underwent an early process of personalization, achieved only later by those verbs whose semantics entailed a lower degree of rational involvement and control over the experience. This paper shows that semantic factors may influence the formal coding of a given verb-specific role, accelerate its syntactic reinterpretation and lead to constructional changes.

Abstract

In this paper I investigate the diachronic development and downfall of the meACCpudet3SG ‘I am ashamed’ construction in Latin, with a view to exploring the factors that played a significant role in the process of constructional analogization that lead this impersonal pattern to be reinterpreted as personal and transitive over centuries. By comparing the kind of stimuli typically associated with the pudet-type verbs and their specific meaning, I show that they differ in view of different degrees of agentivity and volitionality exerted by the experiencer. Paenitet ‘to repent’ reveals itself as being the most agentive verb and this is why it underwent an early process of personalization, achieved only later by those verbs whose semantics entailed a lower degree of rational involvement and control over the experience. This paper shows that semantic factors may influence the formal coding of a given verb-specific role, accelerate its syntactic reinterpretation and lead to constructional changes.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Introduction ix
  5. Part I. Rise of non-canonical subjects or subject-like obliques
  6. Non selected dative arguments in Spanish anticausative constructions 3
  7. The rise of animacy-based differential subject marking in Dutch 35
  8. The rise of oblique subjects in Russian 55
  9. Non-canonical subject marking 73
  10. The rise of non-canonical subjects and semantic alignments in Hindi 91
  11. Part II. Historical changes in constructions with non-canonical subjects or subject-like obliques
  12. Experiencers and psychological noun predicates 121
  13. Between Finnic and Indo-European 139
  14. On the historical expansion of non-canonically marked ‘subjects’ in Spanish 163
  15. Part III. From non-canonical subjects or subject-like obliques to canonical subjects
  16. Subjects in Scandinavian 187
  17. The me pudet construction in the history of Latin 203
  18. Diachrony of experiencer subject marking 231
  19. Obliqueness, quasi-subjects and transitivity in Baltic and Slavonic 257
  20. Rise of canonical subjecthood 283
  21. Synthesis
  22. The diachronic typology of non-canonical subjects and subject-like obliques 313
  23. Language index 361
  24. Subject index 363
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.140.10fed

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Introduction ix
  5. Part I. Rise of non-canonical subjects or subject-like obliques
  6. Non selected dative arguments in Spanish anticausative constructions 3
  7. The rise of animacy-based differential subject marking in Dutch 35
  8. The rise of oblique subjects in Russian 55
  9. Non-canonical subject marking 73
  10. The rise of non-canonical subjects and semantic alignments in Hindi 91
  11. Part II. Historical changes in constructions with non-canonical subjects or subject-like obliques
  12. Experiencers and psychological noun predicates 121
  13. Between Finnic and Indo-European 139
  14. On the historical expansion of non-canonically marked ‘subjects’ in Spanish 163
  15. Part III. From non-canonical subjects or subject-like obliques to canonical subjects
  16. Subjects in Scandinavian 187
  17. The me pudet construction in the history of Latin 203
  18. Diachrony of experiencer subject marking 231
  19. Obliqueness, quasi-subjects and transitivity in Baltic and Slavonic 257
  20. Rise of canonical subjecthood 283
  21. Synthesis
  22. The diachronic typology of non-canonical subjects and subject-like obliques 313
  23. Language index 361
  24. Subject index 363
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