Re: What case is the inverse of the dative?

On 05/10/2008, Kenneth Asad <kenneth_asad@...> wrote:
>  hun får rakt bogen af mig
Is "får" literally "receives"? (From the little Swedish I know.)

In which case, German has a similar construction. It sounds odd with
"give", so I'll demonstrate with "give as a present":

Ich schenke ihr das Buch - I give her the book (as a present)
Das Buch wurde ihr von mir geschenkt  - The book was given her by me
(as a present)
Sie bekam das Buch von mir geschenkt - She was given the book by me
(as a present)

Or similarly with e.g. "Er hat die Haare geschnitten bekommen",
literally, "He has the hair cut received", for "He got his hair cut",
also a promotion of a dative to a nominative.

(Though German can also have dative subjects: "Ihm wurden die Haare
geschnitten", literally "Him were the hair cut", with unspecified
agent.)

Cheers,
Philip
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>