Autors:
Jaume Mateu & Diana Gómez-VázquezTítol:
The locative alternation with intransitive verbs in LatinEditorial: Journal of Latin Linguistics
Col·lecció: Journal of Latin Linguistics
Data de publicació: 2026
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Abstract
The locative alternation with intransitive verbs, which is quite productive in English, is also shown to be attested in Latin. In the theme/figure subject variant, the location surfaces as an oblique complement: e.g. oculis micat acribus ignis (Verg. Aen. 12.102) and Et resonet tota planctus in Aemilia (Mart. 6.85.6). In contrast, in the location/ground subject variant, the theme is typically expresssed via a nominal phrase in the ablative case (and less frequently in the genitive case): e.g. et crebris micat ignibus aether (Verg. Aen. 1.90) and resonat magnis plangoribus aether (Verg. Aen. 4.668). The two variants are shown to involve a different syntactico-semantic construal, with a different pragmatics as well. The meaning of the location subject variant is shown to go beyond the well-known “holistic effect” (i.e. its subject is “fully affected”): this variant entails theme and event abundance and so-called “dynamic texture”, whereby the events described by the verb happen simultaneously and repetitively throughout all parts of a space. Finally, we also provide a sketch of our syntactic approach to the event structure of some relevant verbs that enter into the intransitive locative alternation in Latin.
