Re: Causative/Benefactive Interaction

I've been pondering this, too.........


Lars Finsen wrote:
>Den 12. des. 2007 kl. 22.16 skreiv Eldin Raigmore:
>
>>Is there a semantic difference between:
>>
>>"(Abe made Bob do something) for Charlie"
>>
>>and
>>
>>"Abe made (Bob do something for Charlie)."
(snip Lars' solution, which seems reasonable for an inflected language-- and
whether the benefactive phrase is in the main clause or the complement seems
to be the easiest way to make the difference.  It isn't so much the
Causative verb in itself that's the problem.)

Part of the problem is the polysemy of Engl. "for"--
--I wrote a poem for Charlie -- 1. "benefactive/intended for" it was
dedicated/presented to him 2. "instead of" he didn't have time to write it
himself, so I wrote it, but it was published as his work. (3. not really
applicable in this particular case-- on behalf of, in favor of-- "I spoke up
for the candidate")

One might use a dative or benefactive case/phrase for #1,3, (placement would
be relevant)-- but probably something else for #2, since it's not a common
occurrence :-)

(I can't do a direct trans. of Eldin's example in Kash, because its
causative doesn't imply "make s.o. do s.t.")