ON DEVIANT CASE-MARKING IN LATIN 371
Although all verbs within this corpus assign at least one macrorole, there are, for
example, instances in which taedet, "it tires," appears with only the genitive argu
ment, the accusatively coded cognizer being generic or reconstructible from con
text: Vitae (G) taedet (IMP), "Life tires (one)"; the verb here would then be said
license no macroroles.
Within more recent versions of RRG, the first (cognizer) argument of stative cog
nition verbs is held to be an experiencer rather than a locative. I continue Foley &
Van Valin's (1984) practice of assigning locative status to this argument because,
I think, it allows a slightly more perspicuous statement of the marked linkage cod
ing principle (26).
One can easily confirm for oneself that the "irregular" activity, accomplishment,
and achievement verbs whose LS's were given above conform to the case-marking
principles in (24). However, we can briefly examine their application with respect
to the accomplishment verb noceo, which assigns these thematic roles: x=effector
and y=patient. As it has an activity verb in its LS, the sole macrorole assigned will
be an actor. The effector will map into this role and be linked to the PrP slot,
hence appearing in the nominative, while the patient, a non-macro role core argu
ment, is assigned dative.
One can contrast this situation with that of the inverse verbs in (3-5). These verbs
have clear PrPs — the argument denoting the "item cognized" is nominatively
case-marked — yet this PrP is not an SmP. As theme, it is outranked by locative
(the argument denoting the cognizer) on the Actorhood hierarchy.
This coding principle might be formulated more generally, if it were the case that,
in the absence of a PrP, any non-macrorole direct core argument (not simply an
effector) receives genitive coding. Evidence for this more general formulation is
provided by another class of verbs which, in most uses, assign neither a PrP nor
any macrorole. This class is composed of the impersonal verbs referí and interest,
"it concerns, interests", the second of which is exemplified in the following sen
tence:
(i) Interest omnium hoc faceré.
interest everyone(G) this(A) do(INF)
"It is in the interest of everyone to do this."
Interest might be given the following lexical representation: interest: concern' (x,y)
[—MR] As a stative cognition verb, this predicate assigns the thematic roles loca
tive and theme. The theme is represented by an infinitival clause. The non-mac
ro role-bearing locative nominal receives genitive case-marking, apparently in
accordance with the more general version of the coding principle suggested. There
is, however, an apparent difficulty with this evidence: the locative argument of
interest and referí is frequently expressed not by the genitive, but by the ablative
singular feminine of a possessive adjective, as in the following example: