The syncretism of latin’s -r morpheme: caselessness and post-syntactic incorporation

Abstract

This paper investigates Latin’s passive syncretism. In that language, the suffix that realizes the passive voice (default: -r) is also found in impersonal, anticausative and middle constructions, as well as in deponent verbs. Building upon previous works of Schäfer (2008) and Lazzarini-Cyrino (2015), and under the framework of Distributed Morphology (HALLE & MARANTZ, 1993; MARANTZ, 1997), we present a derivational proposal which argues that the syncretic marker is a non-referential argument – a variable – which is incorporated into the verb post-syntactically. The several interpretative contexts in which the marker appears in result from the original position it occupied and from its interaction with different flavors of Voice (FOLLI & HARLEY, 2005). If this variable is an external argument, there won’t be any other DP for it to be bound with, and it will remain without a θ-role and Case. Without a θ-role, it is read as an expletive at LF. The absence of Case is a problem for PF (LEVIN, 2015) and, in order to prevent the derivation from crashing, the variable incorporates into the verbal domain by means of Local Dislocation, in the terms of Levin (2015). Passive voice and impersonals result from the incorporation of the variable in the external argument position of a Voice_DO. The same configuration, but with a Voice_CAUSE, produces anticausatives. In middle contexts, the variable is also introduced in the external argument position, but it’s the argument of an Appl head (PYLKKÄNEN, 2008) that is promoted to syntactic subject. Deponents are divided into three types: we propose the agentive ones are in fact middle verbs, and so are derived in the same way; experiencer-subject deponents project that argument via an EXP head and the variable occupies the canonical external argument position; anticausative deponents result from the incorporation of Appl or EXP’s argument in a Voice-less structure.