Re: Primary/secondary object systems

On Sun, 04 Apr 2004 23:17:36 -0500, Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>
wrote:

>> I write      the letter      the pen, then put it in the draw.
>> S V              DO     with     IO           (DO)
>> S V     THUS     SO              PO           (PO)
>>
>> In "dative" (normal) languages, "it" refers fairly unambiguously to the
>> letter (given the sentence in isolation), whereas in dechticaetiative
>> languages it refers just as unambiguously to the pen.
>
> I'd consider it ambiguous, at least in English.  I'd probably assume
> that "it" referred to the letter if there was no other context, but I
> wouldn't consider it odd if it referred to "pen".
Indeed. Thus, the word "fairly". I've been around these parts just about
long enough to avoid littering my emails with very many absolutes. I
fairly rarely do it these days. ;-)





Paul