Re: Ergative and other questions
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, November 17, 2003, 20:21 |
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On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 02:25:03PM -0500, John Cowan wrote:
> > So the -ee suffix in English is ergative.
>
> Exceptions: divorcee, fiancee, negligee (all straight French borrowings,
> and all still +female), bargee (bizarre), refugee (no underlying verb,
> but if there were one it would be accusative), goatee (probably -y rather
> than -ee).
And then there's "attendee", which is odd because "attend" is transitive.
-Mark
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