Re: Dialect & accent (was: Announcement: New auxlang "Choton")
From: | Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...> |
Date: | Tuesday, October 12, 2004, 14:28 |
--- Thomas R. Wier skrzypszy:
> > So is this where 'methinks' comes from?
>
> No, actually, _methinks_ is an ancient construction, in which the
> experiencer is treated as a kind of oblique (Dative in OldEng), and
> the verb agrees with the NP motivating the experience.
In Dutch it exists too in the form of "mij dunkt", which means
exactly the same. And German has the, presumably ancient, verb
"dünken", as in "Was dünket euch?".
If this is the same thing as in English, the homonymy between "I
think" and "me thinks" is nothing but coincidence. It would also
imply that the pronoun is an accusative, not a dative.
Jan
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