Re: Evolution of Applicatives

From:    Steven Williams <feurieaux@...>
> By 'applicative', I assume you mean a structure like
> 'I on-slept the mat' for 'I slept on the mat'?
Yes, but...

> As I understand it, the applicative in many languages is
> carried out by dropping the valency of a sentence by
> one through making the complement a direct object, and
> encoding any specific information relevant to the
> complement on the verb (or something like that).
..applicatives *increase* the valency, not decrease them.
PPs are (generally) adjuncts; your own example above is
an example of this.

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Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
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