Anticausativization and lability in Late Latin

Abstract This paper investigates the effect of usage frequency on the alternation between anticausativization and lability in Late Latin. For many verbs entering the causal–noncausal alternation (‘John opens the door’ vs. ‘The door opens’), the intransitive alternant is either unmarked in lability or marked by the mediopassive voice or a reflexive pronoun. Previous research suggested that factors such as control, telicity, and Aktionsart influence the selection among these strategies. Drawing on a representative sample of Latin texts dating from 200 to 600 CE, this study offers corpus-based evidence on how these parameters align with the form–frequency correspondence principle. The data show that verbs with higher semantic transitivity tend to occur more frequently in their transitive alternant, and that control is a subject property more associated with transitive uses. I therefore argue that usage frequency plays a pivotal role in shaping transitivity in the diachrony of anticausativization and lability.