Cover not available

In:Historical Linguistics 2015: Selected papers from the 22nd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Naples, 27-31 July 2015
Edited by Michela Cennamo and Claudia Fabrizio
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 348] 2019
► pp. 133–148

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 7
Where do Italian -ata nouns come from?

Some new diachronic evidence on a Romance derivational pattern

 | University of Chieti
Published online: 10 September 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.348.07fab
Abstract
The issue of the rise of -ata action nouns has been intensively discussed. Two major hypothesis have been put forward to account for the emergence of this derivational pattern: according to the first one, -ata action nouns are participial nouns; according to the second one, -ata formations must be rather traced back to Latin -tus (<*-tū-) action nouns, through their neuter -tum variants. In this papers, new evidence is provided in support of the latter position. In particular, it is shown that the emergence of -ata nouns, both in Italian and in other Romance languages, is due to an overall reshaping of the nominalizing strategies in Late Latin, and is connected to the loss of ground of the -tus (<*-tū-) suffix, originally devoted to nominalize intransitive (mainly stative and achievement) predicates. Beyond their etymological source, -ata nouns are also investigated with regard to their functional role in the domain of Italian nominalizations, especially from the point of view of the interplay between the Aktionsart etc. of the predicate and the semantic value of the resulting action noun.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.At the beginning of the story: the -tus (<*-tū-) suffix and its receding
  • 3.Arguments supporting the -tus (<*-tū-) hypothesis
  • 4.The so-called Romanian “supine”
  • 5.The expansion of -ata nouns
  • 6.The “place in the system” of -ata nouns
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Aknowledgments
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
References (72)
References
Alexander, Luther Herbert. 1912. Participial Substantives of the -ata type in the Romance Languages with Special Reference to French. New York: Columbia University Studies in Romance Philology and Literature.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Appel, Ernst. 1883. De genere neutro intereunte in lingua latina. Degree dissertation, University of Erlangen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beavers, John. 2011. On affectedness. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29. 335–370. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benveniste, Emile. 1935. Origines de la formation des noms en indo-européen. Paris: Maisonneuve.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1948. Noms d’agent et noms d’action en indo-européen. Paris: Maisonneuve.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brâncus, Grigore. 2007. Studii de istorie a limbii române. Bucarest: Editura Academiei Române.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brugmann, Karl & Berthold, Delbruck. 1897–1916. Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen. Kurzgefasste Darstellung der Geschichte des Altindischen, Altiranischen (Avestischen und Altpersischen), Lateinischen, Umbrisch-Samnitischen, Altirischen, Gotischen, Althochdeutschen, Litauischen und Altkirchenslavischen. Strassburg: Trübner.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caragiu Marioţeanu, Matilda. 1962. Moduri ne personale. Studii şi cercetări lingvistice 13. 29–43.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cojocaru, Dana. 2003. Romanian Grammar. Slavic and East European Language Research Center (SEELRC). Durham: Duke University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collin, Carl S. R. 1904. Zur Geschichte des Nomina Actionis im Romanischen. Archiv für Lateinische Lexicographie und Grammatik 13. 453–473.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1918. Le développement de sens du suffixe -ata dans les langues romanes, spécialement au point de vue du français. Lund: A.-B. Ph. Lindstedts Universitets-Bokhandel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cooper, Frederic. 1895. Word Formation in the Roman Sermo Plebeius. An historical study of the development of vocabulary in Vulgar and Late Latin, with special reference to the Romance Languages. New York: Ginn & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cornilescu, Alexandra. 2001. Romanian Nominalizations: Case and Aspectual Structure. Journal of Linguistics 37. 467–501. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corti, Maria. 1953. Contributi al lessico predantesco. Il tipo ‘il turbato’, ‘la perduta’. Archivio Glottologico Italiano 38. 50–92.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dal, Georgette & Fiammetta Namer. 2010. Les noms en -ance/-ence du français : quel(s) patron(s) constructionnel(s)? In Franck Neveu, Valelia Muni Toke, Thomas Klingler, Jacques Durand, Lorenza Mondada & Sophie Prévost (eds.), 2ème Congès Mondial de Linguistique Française – CMLF 2010, 893–907. Paris: Institut de Linguistique Française. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Densusianu, Ovid. 1961. Istoria limbii române. Vol. II. Bucarest: Editura Ştiinţifică.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Di Gennaro, Rosana. 2010. Nuovi modelli per l’analisi e la didattica delle lingue antiche. Nome, verbo, aggettivo e processi di trans-categorizzazione. Rome: Carocci.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Diez, Friedrich. 1838. Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen. Vol. II. Bonn: Weber.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dragomirescu, Adina. 2010. Ergativitatea: tipologia, sintactică, semantică. PhD Dissertation. University of Bucarest.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Du latin au roumain: une nouvelle hypothèse sur l’origin du supin en roumain. Revue de linguistique romane 77. 51–85.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Du Cange, Charles. 1982. Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis. Bologna: Forni (First edition 1610–1688).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferret, Karen, Elena Soare & Florence Villoing. 2010. Rivalry between French -age and -ée: the Role of Grammatical Aspect in Nominalization. In Maria Aloni, Harald Bastiaanse, Tikitu de Jager & Katrin Schulz (eds.), Logic, Language and Meaning. Proceedings of the 17th Amsterdam Colloquium, 284–294. Berlin / Heidelberg: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Foley, William A. & Robert D. Jr. Van Valin 1984. Functional Syntax and Universal Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frâncu, Constantin. 2009. Gramatica limbii române vechi (1521–1780). Iaşi: Demiurg.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fruyt, Michèle. 1996. Nom de procès en latin. Évaluation des positions benvenistiennes dans “Nom d’agent et noms d’action en indo-européen”. In Hannah Rosén (eds.), Aspects of Latin, Papers from the Seventh International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics, 193–206. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sparchwissenschaft.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gaeta, Livio. 2002. Quando i verbi compaiono come nomi. Un saggio di Morfologia Naturale. Milan: Franco Angeli.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. A metà tra nomi e verbi: i nomi d’azione tra morfologia, sintassi e semantica. In Edoardo Lombardi Vallauri & Lunella Mereu (eds.), Spazi inguistici. Studi in onore di Raffaele Simone, 111–123. Rome: Bulzoni.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. Action Nouns in Romance. In Peter O. Müller, Ingeborg Ohnheiser, Susan Olsen & Franz Rainer (eds.), Word-Formation. An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe [Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft /Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science], vol. II, 1165–1185. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Nomi deverbali in MIDIA, In Paolo D’achille & Maria Grossmann (eds.), Per la storia della formazione delle parole in italiano: un nuovo corpus in rete (MIDIA) e nuove prospettive di studio, 221-241. Florence: Franco Cesati.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gardani, Francesco. 2013. Dinamiche di produttività flessiva: dal latino arcaico all’italiano antico. In Emili Casanova Herrero & Cesáreo Calvo Rigual (eds.), Actas del XXVI Congreso Internacional de Lingüística y Filología Románica, vol. II, 193–204. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Georges, Emanuel S. 1968. Past-Participial Nouns: Their Development from Latin to Romance. Romance Philology 21. 368–391.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1970. Studies in Romance Nouns Extracted from Past Participlex. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gianollo, C. 2005. Middle Voice and the phenomenon of Split Intransitivity. In Gualteiro Calboli (ed.), Latina Lingua! Proceedings of the Twelfth International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics, 97–109. Roma: Herder.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grimm, Jacob. 1822–1837. Deutsche Grammatik. Göttingen: Dieterich’sche Buch-handlung.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hill, Virginia. 2002. The gray area of supine clauses. Linguistics 40. 495–517. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iordăchioaia, Gianina & Elena Soare. 2008. Two kinds of Event Plurals: Evidence from Romanian Nominalizations. Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics 7. 194–216.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kemmer, Suzanne. 1993. The Middle Voice. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lazzeroni, Romano. 1990. La diatesi come categoria linguistica: studio sul medio indoeuropeo. Studi e Saggi Linguistici 30. 1–22.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. La transitività come categoria linguistica. I nomi d’azione indoeuropei. Incontri linguistici 20. 71–82.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lehmann, Christian. 1985. Ergative and active traits in Latin. In Frans Plank (ed.), Relational typology 243–255. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maiden, Martin. 2012. Supin şi participiu trecut în morfologia istorică a limbii române. In Rodica Zafiu, Adina Dragomirescu & Alexandru Nicolae (eds.), Limba română. Direcţii actuale în cercetarea linguistica, Vol. I, 11–18. Bucarest: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti,Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malkiel, Yakov. 1945. Development of the Latin suffixes -antia and -entia in the Romance languages, with special regard to- Ibero-Romance. Berkeley: University of Calfornia Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1977. The social matrix of Palaeo-Romance postverbal nouns. Romance Philology 31. 55–90.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marouzeau, Jules. 1949. Quelques aspects de la formation du Latin Littéraire. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm. 1890. Grammatik der Italienischen Sprache. Leipzig: Reisland.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1895. Grammaire des langues romanes. Vol. II: Morphologie. Paris: Welter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Næss, Åshild. 2009. How transitive are 'eat' and 'drink' verbs? In John Newman (ed.), The Linguistics of Eating and Drinking, 27–43. Amsterdam: BenjaminsGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nedjalkov, Vladimir P. & Sergej J. Jaxontov 1988. Typology of Resultative Constructions. In Vladimir P. Nedjalkov (ed.), Typology of Resultative Constructions 3–62. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ott, Johann N. 1874. Die Substantivierung des lateinischen Adjectivum durch Ellipse. Rottweil: Programm.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela. 2007. Din nou despre participiu şi supin. Studii şi cercetări lingvistice 58. 163–173.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Supinul. In Valeria Guţu Romalo (ed.), Gramatica limbii române, Vol. I., 509–524. Bucarest: Editura Academiei Române.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Din istoria supinului românesc. In Rodica Zafiu, R., Camelia Uşurelu & Helga Oprea (eds.), Limba română – ipostaze ale variaţiei lingistice, Vol. I, 119–130. Bucarest: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. The supine. In Gabriela Pană Dindelegan (ed.), The Grammar of Romanian, 233–244. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paucker, Carl. 1870. De Latinitate Scriptorum Historiae Augustae. Dorpat: Glaeser.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ramchand, Gillian. 2008. Verb Meaning and the Lexicon: A First Phase Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reisig, Karl. 1881. Vorlesungen über lateinische Sprachwissenschaft. Vol. I. Berlin: Hagen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Renou, Louis. 1937. Monographies Sanskrites. Vol II: Le suffixe -tu- et la constitution des infinitifs. Paris: Maisonneuve.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
REW: Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm. 1972. Romanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 5th edition. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rohlfs, Gerhard. 1969. Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Romagno, Domenica. 2005. Il perfetto omerico. Diatesi azionalità ruoli tematici. Milan: Franco Angeli.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosén, Hannah. 1981. Studies on the syntax of the verbal noun in Early Latin. Munich: Fink.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rovai, Francesco. 2012. Between Feminine Singular and Neuter Plural: Re-Analysis Patterns. Transactions of the Philological Society 110. 94–121. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shibatani, Masayoshi. 2001. Some basic Issues in the Grammar of Causation. In Masayoshi Shibatani (ed.), The Grammar of Causation and Interpersonal Manipulation, 1–22. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Soare, Elena. 2007. Morphosyntactic Mismatches Revised: The Case of Romanian Supine. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 54. 1–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stan, Camelia. 2001. Supinul. In Marius Sala (ed.), Enciclopedia limbii române, 551–553. Bucarest: Univers Enciclopedic.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stewart, Manson A. 1910. A study in Latin abstract substantives. In Clarence L. Meader (ed.), Latin Philology, 113–178. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tekavčić, Pavao. 1972. Grammatica storica dell’italiano. III vol., Lessico. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thornton, Anna Maria. 1988–89. Sui ‘nomina actionis’ in italiano. PhD Dissertation, University of Pisa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Valin, Robert D., Jr. 2005. Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Valin, Robert D., Jr. & Randy J. LaPolla 1997. Syntax. Structure, meaning and function. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Valin, Robert D., Jr. & David P. Wilkins 1993. Predicting syntactic structure from semantic representations: Remember in English and Mparntwee Arrernte. In Robert D. Jr. Van Valin (ed.), Advances in Role in Reference Grammar, 499–534. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, Anna. 1987. English speech act verbs: A semantic dictionary. Sydney: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Fabrizio, Claudia
2025. Alignment and Subjecthood in Latin, DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue