Re: What case is the inverse of the dative?

I guess one interesting difference is that the dative is typically used
with animates. Languages often seem to display a split between a dative
case, mostly for animates, and an allative for inanimates. I'm not aware
of any language having an oblique case marking the source or cause of an
action which is restricted to animates (although I do know of languages
where the ergative case, for example, can only be applied to animates).

Chris.
> On 04/10/2008, Gregory Gadow <techbear@...> wrote:
>
>> In the sentence, "Sally gave the book TO JOHN", "to John" would use the
>>  dative case as it marks the recipient. I want a case that marks the giver,
>>  as in "John got the book FROM SALLY."
>>
>
> The first thing that came to my mind was "ablative".
>
> Not specifically related to "giver", but then, "dative" is not
> specifically about "recipients", either.
>
> Cheers,
>

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