Late Latin Pleonastic Reflexives and the Unaccusative Hypothesis

Abstract

This paper illustrates the relevance of the Unaccusative Hypothesis for a well‐known area of Late Latin/early Romance syntax, the proliferation of pleonastic reflexives with intransitive verbs denoting change of state/location, states, verba dicendi and sentiendi. In particular, it is argued that at some point in Late Latin the accusative and dative reflexive pronouns (se/sibi) become markers of Split Intransitivity, with se occurring with unergative/class SA verbs, and sibi with unaccusative/class SO verbs. It is also shown that a gradient approach to Unaccusativity/Split Intransitivity accounts neatly for the data, allowing one to locate the verbs/patterns under scrutiny along a Hierarchy of Unaccusativity/Unergativity, resulting from the interplay of a number of parameters, with Telicity and Control being most relevant in defining the core of the categories.

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