‘Tu bells ulls tens he no y vols veure’

Catalan verbs like veure-hi (‘see’) and sentir-hi (‘hear’) contain a grammaticalized non-referential oblique hi clitic (Fabra 1891; Todolí 2002; Russi 2008; GIEC 2016: § 18.6.4.4a). This article explores the role of the inherent hi clitic with a group of intransitive perception verbs in Catalan and, secondarily, its equivalent forms in Romance (Occitan, Aragonese, French, Italian and Neapolitan). Firstly, its diachronic origin and grammaticalization process are addressed (Roberts & Roussou 2003; van Gelderen 2011) using corpus data from Old Catalan, Old Occitan and other varieties. It is argued that its origin can be traced back to an instrumental or cause adjunct in centuries 13th in Old Occitan, and 14th in Old Catalan. Secondly, the functional role of the clitic, its expletive status and the syntactic structure of these predicates are discussed. It is shown that two analyses are needed depending on the stage-level or individual-level status of the predicate (Kratzer 1995; Maienborn 2019). In the first case, the non-referential clitic is identified at logical form with an abstract instrument or cause affecting the ability to perceive (Espinal 2009). In the second case, the clitic acts as a commitative/instrumental agreement morpheme.