If in doubt, leave it in: subject accusatives in Plautus and Terence

Abstract

The accusative-and-infinitive construction in Latin is a type of non-finite subordinate clause with the subject in the accusative case and the verb in the infinitive. Latin infinitives are marked not only for voice, but also for relative tense; the perfect infinitive expresses anteriority, the present infinitive simultaneity, and the future infinitive posteriority. The subject accusative can sometimes be omitted. Most scholars have assumed that this is a colloquialism. However, omission occurs equally frequently across literary genres, and is more common with future than with present infinitives; these facts make it unlikely that register plays a role. My article shows that omission is most frequent among future active and perfect passive infinitives, that is, those forms which contain a participle marked for gender and number. The reason is that here the participle allows us to retrieve an omitted subject accusative more easily.