Ablativus absolutus with the perfect participle: grammatical relations and diathesis

As far as we know, the label ablativus absolutus was introduced in the 11th century by Alberic of Montecassino to designate the well-known Latin construction. Thereafter, the term absolutus has become a key-concept in metalinguistic descriptions, to refer both to the fact that the construction is not governed by a verb or a preposition and to the lack of coreference linkages to the matrix proposition. As has already been observed in several studies, however, coreference linkages between the nominal in the ablative and the arguments of the proposition are not ruled out. In particular, when the absolute construction includes the perfect participle of a transitive verb, its agent – in a wide sense – is fairly commonly coreferential with the subject of the matrix proposition. Starting from this observation, this paper questions the diathetic character of the ablativus absolutus with a perfect participle, both when the structure is transitive and when it is intransitive, as well as the related issue of the grammatical relation of the nominal involved. Some common assumptions are thus challenged, such as the passiveness of the absolute construction and the subjecthood of the nominal in the ablative. The paper concludes with a proposal for the description of the Latin ablativus absolutus with the perfect participle.