Re: Verbs of Transfer and Exchange in Cherani Trade Speech

En réponse à Elyse Grasso <emgrasso@...>:

> In Cherani Trade Speech, verbs of transfer and exchange primarily
> report
> the relationships between the people involved, not between a person
> and
> an object that is being transferred.
> In sentences that can be glossed
>
> Tlefrin gave-to Netannin the fish
> and
> Degaev sold-to Netannin the fish [for] 3 Imperial marks
>
> The fish can take an optional case marker, just as the money can.
> Netannin, who is the direct object of sold-to or gave-to, does not
> take
> a case marker unless he moves very far away in the sentence or gets
> tangled up in a relative clause.
>
Interesting. In a way, it looks quite natural if you put the emphasis of the
trade on the people who trade. But I don't know if any language (except those,
like English, which allow constructions like "Tlefrin gave Netannin the fish")
does that, i.e. putting the receiver as direct object of the the object
received as oblique.

> There are marked verb forms that allow you to say 'Tlefrin gave the
> fish' or  'Degaev sold the fish' (where the fish becomes the direct
> object),
A kind of voice then.

 but in everyday speech people are more likely to say 'Tlefrin
> gave-to someone the fish' or 'Tlefrin gave-to [case mark] the fish'.
>
Cherani Trade speech could do very well with a French "on" ;)) .

>
> (With all the prepositions and preposition compounds available in
> English, you would think there would be one that is appropriate to
> translate the case marker on 'the fish' in the sentences given, but I
> can't think of one.)
> --
Because English has no accusative case marker on nouns...

Christophe.

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