[What a blessed reduction in traffic there's been! Here was I expecting
to find 5000 unread messages and finding only 1500. Relief!]
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> From: Matt Pearson
> To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG
> Subject: Re: Case
> Date: 10 July 1999 08:50
[....]
> The INSTRUMENTAL case is used to mark
> -- Instruments (I hit the nail *with the hammer*)
> -- Paths/routes (I went *through the woods*, I slid *across the ice*,
> the bird flew *over the tree*, we travelled *via Boston*)
> -- Measures (I live *twelve miles* from here, John is *three feet*
> taller than Bill, I am *seven years* older than Bill)
>
> So, rather than coming up with lots of different cases, as other
people
> do, I enjoy limiting myself to a few cases, and then figuring out
which
> semantic relations to assign to each one. The resulting semantic
> mappings can be rather intriguing. I find the implied connection
> between the PATH, INSTRUMENT, and MEASURE relations rather pleasing,
> for example: "I hit the nail BY MEANS OF the hammer", "I walked BY
MEANS
> OF the woods", "I am taller than Bill BY MEANS OF three feet"...
It sounds to me as if it is PERLATIVITY ("through-ness") rather than
INSTRUMENTALITY that is the semantic essence of this case. So better
translations would in that case be
"I hit the nail VIA/THROUGH the hammer",
"I walked VIA/THROUGH the woods",
"I am taller than Bill VIA/THROUGH three feet"...
--And.