Construction alternations with Latin three-place verbs

This paper investigates Latin three-place verbs like circumdo ‘surround’ that alternate between the argument-structure constructions NomAccAbl and NomAccDat. In the former the Recipient-like argument takes the accusative, and the Theme/Instrument-like argument takes the ablative; in the latter it is the Theme/ Instrument-like participant that takes the accusative while the Recipient-like argu- ment is in the dative. We examined a sample of verbs in a corpus dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 2nd century CE, within a constructionist framework. By giving a frequency-informed picture of the constructions attested, we show that construction alternation may be limited to genres, chronological periods, or behavioral patterns (e.g. passivization). Our analysis points out that pragmatic and semantic/syntactic factors advocated thus far cannot explain the alternation. Specifically, we consider semantic properties of verbs, arguments and constructions themselves, such as transitivity-related properties (e.g. R-like participants’ affectedness, event comple- tion). Consistent with constructionist approaches, we show that these factors contribute to the construal (profiling) of the transfer. We argue that the NomAccDat construction foregrounds T-like participant’s transfer, whereas the NomAccAbl construction highlights the change of state affecting the R-like participant. Finally, we shed light on cases of semantic specialization of a given construction with specific verbs (e.g. dono, impertio with NomAccAbl).