Re: Ethical Dative, was Re: Polysynthetic Languages
| From: | Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, September 30, 2003, 10:27 |
|---|
En réponse à Costentin Cornomorus :
>Yeah. That makes sense.
Indeed.
> An "ethical possessive"?
Since this kind of phenomenon is purely communicative and has nothing to do
with syntax, I'd expect various mechanisms to be used with the same effect
in different (or even in the same language. French also has this "ethical
possessive").
>Still, we can't do this with *my or *her.
Not a problem. As I said earlier, languages often have constraints about
what they can do with the "ethical dative". French can use it only in the
second person, Spanish IIRC only in the first person, Basque only in the
second person when the sentence doesn't contain already a dative
complement, etc... So having your "ethical possessive" limited to the
second person is no big deal ;))) .
Christophe Grandsire.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.
Reply