Tristan McLeay wrote:
>On Sun, 28 Sep 2003, David Barrow wrote:
>
>
>
>>Fowler's Modern English Usage says it means emotional or expressive and
>>is a way a speaker introduces himself into an action of which he has no
>>more than indirect interest. Fowler equates it to a parenthetical 'I
>>wonder' and was once present in English:
>>
>>"He that kills me some six or seven dozens of Scots before breakfast"
>>
>>To me above dative and the one in the Spanish "El nene no me come la
>>comida" is more than parenthical. It conveys the idea of 'you do it for
>>me as a favour even if you are not keen on doing it for your own sake'
>>
>>
>
>Umm... I think I'm confused. Can you provide an example with 'I wonder'
>that's equivalent to the ethical dative? How does the above sentence
>differ from 'Someone who kills six or seven dozen Scots before breakfast
>for me'?
>
I was stating what Fowler's says and it doesn't provide one. Fowler's
says the me in the above amounts to a parenthetic 'just fancy'.
David Barrow