Root, templatic and thematic constraints on anticausativization in Latin: variation and change

Abstract

This paper investigates the root, templatic and thematic effects on the distribution of anticausative strategies in Latin, the -R form, the Reflexive pattern and the Active Intransitive. It is shown that the structural and root aspects of verb meaning, as well as the inherent and relational properties of verbal arguments, affect the use of the different patterns, interacting with the encoding of voice, both synchronically and diachronically. More specifically, the selection of the reflexive strategy is initially confined to inherently telic predicates (achievements and accomplishments), whilst the active intransitive/labile strategy mainly occurs with verbs of variable telicity (e.g., fuscare ‘darken’), activities (e.g., volutare ‘roll’), and, marginally, accomplishments lexicalizing a reversible state (e.g., aperire ‘open’). Over time, the reflexive spreads to non-inherently telic (e.g., minuere ‘decrease’), and atelic predicates (e.g., servare ‘keep’), whilst the active intransitive expands to inherently telic predicates (e.g., rumpere ‘break’), until in late texts the three anticausative forms become truly interchangeable. The Latin data, therefore, offer an interesting contribution to the current debate on the role played by the verb’s inherent meaning and its interaction and integration with the event structure template of predicates in determining argument realization in the synchrony and diachrony of anticausativization in Latin.