Personal versus impersonal passive in Latin infinitival clauses: Some diachronic considerations
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: This paper deals with the historical origins of the Classical Latin alternation between the personal passive NcI and the impersonal passive + AcI constructions. Starting from the observation by Maraldi (1983) that this alternation is not found prior to Cicero in the first century BC, the claim is that a combination of external and internal linguistic factors lie behind its emergence in the language. The external factor is the existence of an identical alternation in Ancient Greek, while the internal factor is the development of the passive as an independent category in Latin. The interplay between these two factors points to viewing the impersonal passive + AcI as a partial Graecism.
Source: Pallas
DOI: 10.4000/pallas.3751
Author: Sean Gleason
Institution: Yale University
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2565096437