Matasović Ranko. Latin paenitet me, miseret me, pudet me and active clause alignment in Proto-Indo-European

Indogermanische Forschungen. — 2013. — Vol. 118. — 93-110 p.Abstract: Some Latin verbs take the the experiencer argument in the accusative case. The case-frames of these verbs has been interpreted as evidence for active clause alignment in PIE. According to this hypothesis, the case syntax of Latin verbs like paenitet, pudet, piget, and miseret is inherited from PIE and represents an archaic pattern originally affecting all stative intransitives. However, Latin verbs with case-frames like paenitet belong to the second conjugation, which includes the PIE causatives (e. g. PIE *mon-eye-ti ‘admonishes’ > Lat. monet) and statives (PIE *tak-eh1-ti ‘is silent’ > Lat. tacet). This is the consequence of the regular sound changes (*eh1 > ē, *eye > ē) by which the stative and causative suffixes merged as Latin -ē-. We argue that the irregular case-frames of the Latin bivalent statives are innovations based on the analogy with the case-frames of causative verbs, which had the Causee argument in the accusative case.
Keywords: case asignment, Latin, Proto-Indo-European, clause alignment, comparative syntax.