Re: THEORY: unergative
| From: | Doug Dee <amateurlinguist@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, February 22, 2004, 15:43 |
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In a message dated 2/22/2004 2:57:08 AM Eastern Standard Time,
herodote92@YAHOO.COM writes:
>2/ But there are languages, like Basque, various
>Caucasian langs and others, using another way :
>By-me shot the sheriff
>*me* being in ergative case, and *the sheriff* in
>absolutive
>What conception does such a form reflect ? I think I
>understand it as : "There was some sheriff-shooting,
>and that was done by me". Maybe I'm wrong ?
I think it's potentially misleading to use the term "conception" here. There
is no reason to believe that Basque speakers "conceive" of the proposition "I
shot the sherriff" any differently than English speakers do. Their grammar
just marks things differently.
Doug
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