Re: Applicatives (was Re: Requesting some challenging sentences)

On 10/29/05, Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...> wrote:
> Apparently, there are languages with inflectional applicatives in Africa and
> the Americas, but I don't know much about them.
>
I found this in an old post of mine, about relativization:

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Kinyarwanda only allows relativization upon subjects and objects, so in

Yohani yanditse ibaruwa n-ikaramu
Jown wrote letter with-pen.

you can't relativize upon "pen".  But there's a sort of applicative
voice that will realize the instrument as an object like so:

Yohani yandikishije ikaramu ibaruwa.
John wrote pen letter.

And so now you can relativize pen:

Nabonye ikaramu [ Yohani yandikishije ibaruwa ].
I saw pen [ John wrote letter ].
"I saw the pen with which John wrote the letter".

This example is from the aforementioned Comrie [1989].



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