Goal, source, and route preverbs in Latin: their interaction with spatial datives

Víctor Acedo-Matellán

doi:10.1515/tlr-2021-2064

Article

Goal, source, and route preverbs in Latin: their interaction with spatial datives

Víctor Acedo-Matellán

Published/Copyright: March 31, 2021

Published by

Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Author Information Explore this Subject

From the journal The Linguistic Review Volume 38 Issue 2

Abstract

Prefixed verbs in Latin may take an argument in the dative case, interpreted as the ground of the spatial relation codified by the preverb. This phenomenon is constrained by the semantics of that spatial relation: while preverbs encoding a location, a goal, or a source of motion generally accept the dative argument, preverbs encoding a route do not. I propose a syntactic analysis of this phenomenon, framed within the Spanning framework. I assume an analysis of the spatial dative as an applied argument interpreted as a possessor of the final location of motion. Developing a configurational theory of spatial relations, I show how only the syntax-semantics of the preverbs interpreted as encoding a location, be this final (a goal), initial (a source), or unrelated to motion (a static location), is compatible with the projection of an Appl(icative)P integrating the dative argument. By the same token, pure route preverbs, involving a path but not a location, are correctly predicted to disallow the projection of ApplP, and hence the spatial dative.

Keywords: datives; goals; Latin; preverbs; routes; sources; spanning

Corresponding author: Víctor Acedo-Matellán, Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, E-mail: victor.acedo-matellan@oriel.ox.ac.uk

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the editors, Elisabeth Gibert-Sotelo and Isabel Pujol Payet, for giving me the opportunity to publish this piece of research here. I am very grateful to two anonymous reviewers and also to Elisabeth Gibert-Sotelo and Isabel Pujol Payet for comments that have greatly improved the initial version of the paper. Previous versions have been presented in the workshop “Morfologia i sintaxi” (Universitat de Girona, 16–17 July 2017) and in the General Linguistics Seminar of the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, University of Oxford (24 April 2018). I am thankful for the comments received from linguists in these audiences, particularly Jaume Mateu. Self-evidently, any shortcomings remaining in this final version are attributable only to me. I have conducted this research while being an external researcher of the project “Redes de variación microparamétricas en las lenguas románicas [‘Networks of microparametric variation in Romance languages’] (FFI2017-87140-C4-1-P), funded by Ministerio de Economía y Empresa (MINECO) (Spain).

References

Acedo-Matellán, Víctor. 2003. Movement along the PF-branch: Evidence from Latin prefixed verbs. Talk given at the 1st Workshop on Syntax and Semantics (WoSS I), Euskal Herria Unibertsitatea, Gasteiz, Basque Country, 20 June.Search in Google Scholar

Acedo-Matellán, Víctor. 2016. The morphosyntax of transitions. A case study in Latin and other languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198733287.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Acedo-Matellán, Víctor. 2017. Latin datives with prefixed verbs and beyond: A view from the theory of applicatives. Catalan Journal of Linguistics 16. 19–49. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/catjl.206.Search in Google Scholar

Allen, Bernard M. 1912. The dative with compound verbs in Latin. The Classical Weekly 5(22). 170–173. https://doi.org/10.2307/4386567.Search in Google Scholar

Baunaz, Lena & Eric Lander. 2018. Nanosyntax: The basics. In Lena Baunaz, Liliane Haegeman, Karen De Clercq & Eric Lander (eds.), Exploring nanosyntax, 3–56. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780190876746.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina (BTL) Online. 2011–2020. Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter. http://www.degruyter.com/view/db/btl (accessed 25 June 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Borer, Hagit. 2005. Structuring sense, vol. II: The normal course of events. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199263929.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Brody, Michael. 2000. Mirror theory: Syntactic representation in perfect syntax. Linguistic Inquiry 31(1). 29–56. https://doi.org/10.1162/002438900554280.Search in Google Scholar

Bye, Patrick & Peter Svenonius. 2012. Nonconcatenative morphology as epiphenomenon. In Jochen Trommer (ed.), The morphology and phonology of exponence: The state of the art, 427–495. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199573721.003.0013Search in Google Scholar

Caha, Pavel. 2009. The nanosyntax of case. Tromsø: Universitetet i Tromsø doctoral dissertation. https://munin.uit.no/handle/10037/2203 (accessed 25 June 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam. 2000. Minimalist inquiries: The framework. In Roger Martin, David Michaels & Juan Uriagereka (eds.), Step by step: Essays on minimalist syntax in honor of Howard Lasnik, 89–155. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Cuervo, Ma Cristina. 2003. Datives at large. Cambridge, MA: Massachussets Institute of Technology doctoral dissertation. http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/dm/theses/cuervo03.pdf (accessed 25 June 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Devine, Andrew M. & Laurence D. Stephens. 2013. Semantics for Latin: An introduction. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Di Sciullo, Anna-Maria. 1997. Prefixed verbs and adjunct-identification. In Anna-Maria Di Sciullo (ed.), Projections and interface conditions. Essays on modularity, 52–74. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780195104141.003.0003Search in Google Scholar

Di Sciullo, Anna-Maria. 2005. Asymmetry in morphology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/1465.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Embick, David. 2010. Localism versus globalism in morphology and phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/9780262014229.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Ernout, Alfred & François Thomas. 1964. Syntaxe latine. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck.Search in Google Scholar

Fábregas, Antonio. 2007. An exhaustive lexicalisation account of directional complements. Nordlyd Tromsø Working Papers in Linguistics 34(2). 165–199. https://doi.org/10.7557/12.110.Search in Google Scholar

Fong, Vivianne. 1997. The order of things. What syntactic locatives denote. Stanford, CA: Stanford University doctoral dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

Gibert Sotelo, Elisabeth. 2017. Source and negative prefixes. On the syntax-lexicon interface and the encoding of spatial relations. Girona: Universitat de Girona doctoral dissertation. https://dugi-doc.udg.edu/handle/10256/14994 (accessed 25 June 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Halle, Morris & Alec Marantz. 1993. Distributed morphology and the pieces of inflection. In Kenneth Hale & Samuel J Keyser (eds.), The view from building 20: Essays in linguistics in honor of Sylvain Bromberger, 111–176. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Jackendoff, Ray. 1983. Semantics and cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar

Lease, Emory B. 1912. The dative with prepositional compounds. American Journal of Philology 33. 285–300. https://doi.org/10.2307/288996.Search in Google Scholar

Lehmann, Christian. 1983. Latin preverbs and cases. In Harm Pinkster (ed.), Latin linguistics and linguistic theory. Proceedings of the 1st international colloquium on latin linguistics. Amsterdam, April 1981, 145–165. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.12.15lehSearch in Google Scholar

Mare, María. 2018. Issues on word formation. The case of Latin circum. The Linguistic Review 35(1). 121–159. https://doi.org/10.1515/tlr-2017-0019.Search in Google Scholar

McIntyre, Andrew. 2004. Event paths, conflation, argument structure, and VP shells. Linguistics 42(3). 523–571. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2004.018.Search in Google Scholar

McIntyre, Andrew. 2006. The interpretation of German datives and English have. In Daniel Hole, André Meinunger & Werner Abraham (eds.), Datives and other cases, 185–211. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.75.09mciSearch in Google Scholar

Miller, D. Gary. 1993. Complex verb formation. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/cilt.95Search in Google Scholar

Noonan, Máire. 2010. Á to zu. In Guglielmo Cinque & Luigi Rizzi (eds.), The cartography of syntactic structures, vol. VI: Mapping spatial PPs, 161–195. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393675.003.0005Search in Google Scholar

Oniga, Renato. 2005. Composition et préverbation en latin: Problemes de typologie. In Claude Moussy (ed.), La composition et la préverbation en latin, 211–227. Paris: Université Paris-Sorbonne.Search in Google Scholar

Oniga, Renato. 2014. Latin: A linguistic introduction (edited and translated by Norma Schifano). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Pantcheva, Marina B. 2011. Decomposing path: The nanosyntax of directional expressions tromsø: Universitetet i Tromsø doctoral dissertation. https://munin.uit.no/handle/10037/3631 (accessed 25 June 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Pinkster, Harm. 2011. The use of the dative with latin compounds. STUF-language typology and universals/Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 64. 126–135. https://dare.uva.nl/search?identifier=d602c43f-0189-42ef-a68e-e8ef4116b653 (accessed 25 June 2020).10.1524/stuf.2011.0011Search in Google Scholar

Pylkkänen, Liina. 2008. Introducing arguments. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/9780262162548.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Ramchand, Gillian C. 2008. Verb meaning and the lexicon: A first phase syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511486319Search in Google Scholar

Ramchand, Gillian C. 2018. Situations and syntactic structures: Rethinking auxiliaries and order in English. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/10911.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Real Puigdollers, Cristina. 2013. Lexicalization by phase. Bellaterra: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona doctoral dissertation. https://www.tdx.cat/bitstream/handle/10803/120181/crp1de1.pdf?sequence=1 (accessed 25 June 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Romeu, Juan. 2014. Cartografía mínima de las construcciones espaciales. Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid doctoral dissertation. https://eprints.ucm.es/25969/ (accessed 25 June 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Serbat, Guy. 1996. Grammaire fondamentale du latin VI: l’emploi des cas en latin, vol I: Nominatif, Vocatif, Accusatif, Génitif, Datif. Louvain-la-Neuve & Paris: Peeters.Search in Google Scholar

Starke, Michal. 2004. On the inexistence of specifiers and the nature of heads. In Adriana Belletti (ed.), The cartography of syntactic structures, vol. III: Structures and beyond, 252–268. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780195171976.003.0009Search in Google Scholar

Svenonius, Peter. 2004. Slavic prefixes inside and outside VP. Nordlyd 32. 205–53.10.7557/12.68Search in Google Scholar

Svenonius, Peter. 2007. Adpositions, particles and the arguments they introduce. In Eric Reuland, Tanmoy Bhattacharya & Giorgos Spathas (eds.), Argument structure, 63–103. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/la.108.08sveSearch in Google Scholar

Svenonius, Peter. 2010. Spatial p in English. In Guglielmo Cinque & Luigi Rizzi (eds.), The cartography of syntactic structures, vol. VI: Mapping spatial PPs, 127–160. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393675.003.0004Search in Google Scholar

Svenonius, Peter. 2016. Spans and words. In Daniel Siddiqi & Heidi Harley (eds.), Morphological metatheory, 201–222. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/la.229.07sveSearch in Google Scholar

Talmy, Leonard. 2000. Toward a cognitive semantics, vol. 2: Typology and process in concept structuring. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/6848.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Terzi, Arhonto. 2010. Locative prepositions and place. In Guglielmo Cinque & Luigi Rizzi (eds.), The cartography of syntactic structures, vol. 6: Mapping spatial PPs, 196–224. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393675.003.0006Search in Google Scholar

Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL) Online. 2009. Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter. http://www.degruyter.com/view/db/tll (accessed 25 June 2020).Search in Google Scholar

Wunderlich, Dieter. 1991. How do prepositional phrases fit into compositional syntax and semantics? Linguistics 29(4). 591–621.10.1515/ling.1991.29.4.591Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2021-03-31

Published in Print: 2021-06-25

You are currently not able to access this content.

Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/tlr-2021-2064

Keywords for this article

datives; goals; Latin; preverbs; routes; sources; spanning