Re: Patient marking in active languages

Hallo!

Nokta Kanto wrote:

> I came to a puzzling question when considering case markings in active
> languages.  From what I've read about active languages, they assign the
> 'agent' case to the argument that performs the action, and the 'patient'
> case to the argument that gets the effects of the action.
>
> What does an active language do for verbs that (arguably)
> take two patients: own, be inside, overlook, ride, wear?  Do they assign
> the "agent" role to one of the arguments, or use some other noun case, or
> not express such relationships as a verb clause?
I cannot speak for active languages in general, but I can say how these are
treated in my conlang Old Albic.  Many notions English uses transitive verbs
with non-agent subjects for are treated differently in Old Albic.  For
example, you don't say "I have a house" but "To me is a house".

Verbs of perception usually take dative subjects in Old Albic; they can also
take agentive subjects, which indicates deliberate perception.  Excample:

Eterara             on        nderon  am        chvan.
AOR-see-3SG:P-3SG:A the:M-DAT man-DAT the:C-OBJ dog-OBJ
`The man saw the dog.'

Eterara             o         ndero   am        chvan.
AOR-see-3SG:P-3SG:A the:M-AGT man-AGT the:C-OBJ dog-OBJ
`The man watched the dog.'

In some other cases, one argument is treated as a patient and the other as
locative or whatever.

Greetings,

Jörg.