Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

ON DEVIANT CASE-MARKING IN LATIN^321

(15) a. Eum vita privava.

him(A) life(Aß) (he)robbed

"He robbed him of life."

b. Si feminae caput capillo despoliaveris.

if woman(G) head(A) hair(AB) (you)stripped

"If you stripped a woman's head of hair..." Apul. Met. 2,8

 Cum Caecilius a Vario magna pecunia

since Caecilius(N) by Varius(Aß) much(Aß) ()

fraudaretur.

was-defrauded

"Since Caecilius was defrauded of a lot of money by Var-

ius..." Cic. Att. 1,1,3

As mentioned earlier, the fact that the same case-marking pattern should
be used to express the antithetical concepts of abundance and dearth is
rather strange. Nevertheless, as will be shown, the lexical decomposition
schema entailed in the RRG account of Latin case marking does provide an
explanation for case-pattern congruities between these stative predicates
and their causative counterparts, the removal and transfer verbs.
We might now consider activity predicates which — like the statives of
recollection, need, and abundance — sanction ablative objects. This class
consists of deponent verbs denoting use and enjoyment:

(16) a. Hannibal, cum victoria posset uti,

Hannibal(N) when victory(Aß) (he)could use(iNF)

fruì maluit.

enjoy(iNF) preferred

"Hannibal, when he could have used his victory, preferred to

enjoy it."

b. Divitiarum spe functi sumus.

wealth(G) hope(AB) (we)occupy-ourselves-with.

"We occupied ourselves with the prospect of wealth"

 Voluptatibus vescitur.

pleasures(AB) (he)feeds-on.

"He feeds on pleasures."

We might now make some observations about the impersonal passive

forms which characterize two-place predicates lacking an accusative argu­

ment. These observations will later serve to corroborate the claim that