Re: Evolution of Applicatives

Hi!

Steven Williams <feurieaux@...> writes:
> By 'applicative', I assume you mean a structure like
> 'I on-slept the mat' for 'I slept on the mat'?
Aha! :-)  Yes, German sometimes does that, I think.

> Structures that faintly resemble the applicative
> appear in German, thanks to the wonky flip-flopping of
> word order in certain clauses:
:-)

> "Ich habe die Bandagen mir abgezogen."
But the word order would rather be:

   Ich habe mir die Bandagen abgezogen.

However, the sentence is weird.  First, 'Bandagen' is a funny word.
Second, the verb is strange.  You could use 'angezogen' (from
'anziehen' - to don) or 'ausgezogen' (from 'ausziehen' - to doff).
But I would not claim that the above sentence is wrong, just a bit
weird.  'abziehen' reminds be of 'peeling'.

> "I have the.PLU bandages me.DAT off-pulled."
> "I pulled the bandages off from me."
Maybe a better example:

  Wir sprechen über  das     Buch.
  We  speak    about the-ACC book-ACC.

  Wir besprechen  das     Buch.
  we  speak-about the-ACC book-ACC

The 'be-' prefix often changes the valence this way, but it is not
regular at all.

**Henrik

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