Re: THEORY: Tagalog "Voice" (was: Voice, Mood, and Tense)

Nik Taylor wrote:

>Kristian Jensen wrote:
>> Yes it could. But I wanted to differentiate between voice languages
>> and trigger languages.
>
>Ah, makes sense.  So, how are the equivalent of ditransitive verbs
>handled?  For instance, how would you say "I gave the box to the boy"?
>
Well it depends of course on what you want as the trigger (focus) of=20
the sentence. In the sentence you have (using Tagalog terms); an=20
agent ("I"), a patient ("box"), and a recipient ("boy"). So you have=20
three possible translations:

AGENT TRIGGER
     bumigay  ako   ng  cahon sa  bata
     give:AT  1:TRG GEN box   OBL child
     lit.: "I was the giver of the/a box to a/the child."
     "I gave the box to the child."

PATIENT TRIGGER
     binigay  ko    ang kahon sa  bata
     give:PT  1:GEN TRG box   OBL child
     lit.: "The box was my 'give' to a/the child."
     "The box is such that I gave it to the child"

LOCATION (DIRECTION OF ACTION) TRIGGER
     binigyan ko    ng  kahon ang bata
     give:LT  1:GEN GEN box   TRG child
     lit.: "The child was my 'giving-place/recipient' of a/the box."
     "The child is such that I gave him a box."

-kristian- 8)