Startseite Linguistik & Semiotik Permittito aperiat oculum: typological considerations on P-lability and its interaction with morphosyntactic alignment in Latin medical texts
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Permittito aperiat oculum: typological considerations on P-lability and its interaction with morphosyntactic alignment in Latin medical texts

  • Tim A.F. Ongenae ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 14. Februar 2024

Abstract

This paper explores the diachrony of Latin P-labile verbs (verbs that can be used transitively and intransitively with the preservation of the Patient and without a formal change), availing itself from evidence in medical and veterinary texts from the first to seventh century AD. The first part of the analysis discusses the influence of verbal semantics on the domain of lability in these texts and how lability developed as a diathetic strategy for the anticausative, the causative and the passive in Latin. Special attention is paid to the increase of P-lability as an anticausative strategy and its relation to the mediopassive and reflexive anticausative strategies in Late Latin. The second part of the analysis proposes a new explanation for the increase of P-lability in Latin and discusses the consequences of the development of a semantic-based alignment in Late Latin (the extended accusative) on the syntax and development of P-labile verbs.


Corresponding author: Tim A.F. Ongenae, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University, Blandijnberg 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium, E-mail:

Acknowledgements

I owe thanks to Giovanbattista Galdi, Leonid Kulikov, Chiara Gianollo, Timo Korkiakangas, Michela Cennamo, Francesco Rovai, Rhiannon Smith, the editors of Folia Linguistica Historica and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article. The content of this article was presented during the 21st International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics at the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. I thank the audience for their helpful suggestions after the presentation. The research conducted for this article was supported by grant FWO_G004121N of Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen. This article is dedicated to the loving memory of my grandfather Walter Dobbelaere, who sadly passed away during the final stages of this article. All remaining shortcomings are, of course, mine.

Abbreviations

1

first person

2

second person

3

third person

A

Subject of a transitive clause (Agent or Effector)

acc

accusative

act

active

abl

ablative

dat

dative

dem

demonstrative

f

feminine

gen

genitive

fut

future simple

futpf

future perfect

imp

imperative

ind

indicative

inf

infinitive

m

masculine

mpass

mediopassive

n

neuter

nom

nominative

P

Patient-like argument of a transitive clause

ptcp

participle

pl

plural

PP

prepositional phrase

prf

perfect

prs

present

pst

past

refl

reflexive

rel

relative

S

single argument of an intransitive clause

SA

single argument of an unergative clause

sbjv

subjunctive

sg

singular

SP

single argument of an unaccusative clause

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Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/flin-2024-2005).


Received: 2022-12-12
Accepted: 2023-10-08
Published Online: 2024-02-14
Published in Print: 2024-11-26

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