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Re: Patient marking in active languages

From:Aidan Grey <taalenmaple@...>
Date:Saturday, February 18, 2006, 5:28
I know that Haida marks both arguments of some verb as patients.

  That pretty much exhausts my natlang knowledge on the issue.

 For my conlang, Taalen, double patients are theoretically possible, but
because of the vagaries of the verbal system, never appear.

  I look at you: tenaothan /t@'n@I.Tn=/
     te- 2nd person patient
     na- verb class: agent and patient - dynamic
     eitha: see
     -n 1st person agent

  I see you: tao neitha /t@I 'neI.T@/
     tao: 2nd person focal
     n- 1st person patient
    eitha: see

  I'm in the tree: nesa thalho /'ne.s@ 'Ta.Ko/
     ne: 1st patient
     sa: locative verb, be in, at, or on
     Aspiration: classifer (animate), also used demonstratively
     tal: tree
    -o: focal case


  Aidan



Nokta Kanto <red5_2@...> 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?

--Noktakanto


			
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