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.
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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