Tim Smith wrote:
> Latin has both kinds. Alongside the English-like construction with "have"
> (Petrus librum habet = "Peter has a/the book") is an alternative
> construction with the so-called "dative of possessor" (liber Petro est =
> "a/the book is to Peter").
Isn't the phrase "woe is me" a vestige of that construction in older
English?
> This makes perfect sense to me. But I can see some possible complications,
> especially with ditransitive verbs. If the case affix or adposition that
> ends up in the ergative role was originally dative, you'd end up with
> ambiguous sentences like "to John is written the letter to Mary". I
> suppose that would lead to either fixed word order or a new
> affix/adposition taking over the dative role.
A benefactive (for) or allative (towards) comes to mine for dative.
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