In this paper we investigate different types of argument-structure constructions associated with so-called experiential predicates in Early Vedic, Homeric Greek and Early Latin. We argue that the broad range of argument-realisation patterns associated with experiential verbs in these languages reflects the fact that experiential predicates differ in fundamental respects from prototypically transitive verbs which we take to represent the perhaps most salient verb type in natural language. We survey the most important construction types attested in the domain of experience in the languages under scrutiny with particular regard to recurrent paths of association between experiential verb classes and their argument-realisation options. Finally, on the basis of our data we provide some proposals regarding the main tendencies in the linguistic organisation of this complex functional domain in Proto-Indo-European. 1 We would like to thank the audience at the Workshop on Variation and Change in Argument Realization in Naples and Capri for their feedback after our talk there as well as Jo´hanna Barðdal, Michela Cennamo, Pierluigi Cuzzolin, Serena Danesi, Tonya Kim Dewey and three anonymous reviewers for commenting on earlier versions of this paper, thereby significantly enhancing its final form. Of course, all responsibility for any remaining weaknesses, theoretical as well as philological, remains our own. Through the generosity of the Fondation Colette Caillat of the Institut de France Eystein Dahl enjoyed free housing during a three-month research visit to Paris from October to December 2011, during which parts of this paper reached their present form, for which he hereby wishes to express his sincere gratitude. This contribution is the result of fruitful discussions and inspiring collaboration between the authors over the last few years. Chiara Fedriani wrote the main parts of sections 2, 3.1 and 3.2 and Eystein Dahl the main parts of sections 1, 3.3 and 4.2 In this paper, Early Vedic is understood as the language of Rigveda (RV) and Atharvaveda (AVS´), Homeric Greek as the language of the Iliad (Il.) and the Odyssey (Od.) and Early Latin as the language of Plautus (Plaut.) and Terence (Ter.).3 Cf. also Dahl (forthcoming a) on experiential constructions in Early Vedic.

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This paper examines a range of impolite values recently developed by the Italian politeness markers per favore, per piacere, and per cortesia 'please' in conflictive contexts. In describing this functional development, I adopt Mazzon's (2017) definition of 'pragmatic reversal', i.e., a shift whereby a politeness marker is progressively used with confrontational meanings. Drawing on a corpus of online written Italian, this study analyzes the interactional contexts where politeness markers are used impolitely and suggests an explanatory path for their reversal. The corpus-based study shows that typical contexts of confrontational uses are impolite commands, prohibitions, and quotative constructions reporting a content which is harshly criticized and challenged by the writer. In the latter case, the politeness markers (usually prefaced by ma 'but') function as extra-clausal markers of disagreement-some also occurring as holophrastic interventions to rebut the interlocutor's argument. The idea developed in this paper is that politeness formulae are prone to pragmatic bleaching precisely in view of their routinization as 'politic', conventional, and neutral forms. Once partially bleached, they start acquiring new values within the realm of modulation, even-and this is the interesting fact-in the 'opposite' direction, as insistent reinforcement of impolite acts such as urgent pleas, rude requests, rebuttals, and even insults. This pathway of impoliteness-driven pragmatic change has also been documented for some English markers such as please, sorry and I'm afraid, which suggests the emergence of a recurrent pattern of pragmatic reversal involving equifunctional forms in different languages.

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