ON DEVIANT CASE-MARKING IN LATIN 329privileged syntactic status in the clause, serving as "the NP type to which
[many] grammatical processes] are sensitive, either as controller or as
target" (Foley & Van Valin 1985:395). Second, it must be shown that the
assignment of the pivot role to the nominatively coded argument is not
determined solely by semantic considerations but is also governed by dis
course pragmatic factors, topicality prominent among them. According to
Foley & Van Valin (1984:115), the PrP represents "the syntacticization
of...discourse factors in clause-internal grammar." (See also "Synopsis",
sect. 4.4.) Because, as argued by van Oosten (1984), the topical NP also
typically represents a "primary" or semantic pivot [SmP] (i.e, the highest
ranking core argument with respect to the actor end of the A/U hierarchy),
it is sometimes difficult to determine whether semantic or discourse factors
have determined the selection of pivot. One piece of evidence for the
involvement of discourse considerations in the selection of pivot in a par
ticular language is provided by voice alternations of the type active-passive.
The passive in Latin, as in English and German, allows an undergoer to
serve as subject and hence, as will be shown, to function as a pivot — con
trolling zero anaphora and serving as the target of "object-control equi."
Because Latin allows a non-primary to occupy pivot status, one may con
clude that the selection of pivots in Latin is not strictly semantically gov
erned, but is also determined by considerations of topicality. (See "Synop
sis", sect. 4.4, Foley & Van Valin 1984, sect. 4.1, 7.3.)
Before preceding to an examination of those instances in which a non-
primary serves as pivot, we must substantiate the claim that the nominative
in fact codes this uniquely privileged NP. Evidence for this claim is pro
vided by the "raising to object" construction exemplified in sentence (20a).
As shown in (22), it is only the accusative subject of the embedded clause
(i.e., that argument which would receive nominative case in direct dis
course) that can serve as a core argument both of the object complement
and of the matrix "raising" verb. Other grammatical phenomena providing
evidence for the pivotal status of the nominative argument in Latin syntax
are the reflexive possessive adjective suus and the "equi" constructions.
Zero anaphora occurring within coordinate and subordinate clauses pro
vides additional evidence; nominative NPs typically both serve as anteced
ents for zero anaphors and are the forms reconstructible from zero
anaphors. These phenomena are exemplified in (25):
(25) . Manilius ex suo numero legatos ad
. Manilius(N) from IIÌS(AB) group(Aß) legates(A) to