Re: cases

Christophe Grandsire wrote:

> > And of course, there are those languages called active
> > which treat S, A and P all differently :)) .
Well, not quite. Rather, S is marked as either A or P
depending on like, you know, semantics and stuff.

> > And the image is more blurred by
> > languages which seem to use different systems depending
> > on whether the subject is animate, willing, etc... :))) .
> > But for a simple image just take what I said before.
I'm gonna resend this below for like the millionth time.
Apologies in advance to anyone who read it before. It's just
that I'm a bit anal about this active thingee. Anyway.

<OLD POSTING>

An active language is a language which organizes its core
grammar so that the argument of some one-place predicates is
marked like the A of a two-place predicate, while the argument
of the other one-place predicates is marked like the P of a
two-place predicate.

If the sole argument of a one-place (intransitive) predicate
(verb) is marked as A or P depends on the semantics (of either
the verb or the noun phrase).

My own investigations show that there are three reasons to
mark A's and P's differently.

i)   event vs. state

ii)  control

iii) performance, effect and instigation

"Event vs. state" means that if the verb is an event (like
'run', 'dance', 'chat', 'kill'), then the argument is marked
like A. If it's a state ('be hungry', 'be tired'), then it's
marked like P.

"Control" means that if the argument of the verb is in control
of the event (or state), then it's marked as A. If it is not in
control, then it is marked as P. 'Go' and 'be careful' are
controlled predicates. 'Die' and 'fall' are not.

Then there's "performance, effect and instigation". Some
predicates are in some way performed or instigated by the
actor. However, they need not be controlled. These are verbs
like 'sneeze' and 'vomit'. In languages like Lakhota and
Georgian, it's enough if the actor in some way performs the
action (or state), (s)he doesn't need to be in control. Thus
the argument of predicates like 'sneeze' and 'hiccup' are
marked as A.

Languages of group ii) ("control") mark 'sneeze' and 'hiccup'
predicates as P.

</OLD POSTING>

Okay. Now you can hit me. ::takes heed::

||| daniel

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