Re: Fishing for Complements?

Josh Roth wrote:
> Why? Subjects can be patients or agents in English too, right? Or am I
> missing something?
> "I felled him." Subject = "I" = agent; Object = "him" = patient
> "I fell." Subject = "I" = patient
Well, here we go with a difference in definition - I prefer the
definition that a patient is the role that is affected by the verb, that
is, direct object.  That is, the argument of an intransitive verb is
"subject" or S, subject of a transitive is "agent", or A, while object
of a transitive is "patient" or P.  Perhaps Jim was using your
definition, in which "I" is the patient of "fell", and if so, then my
question was based on a misunderstanding.

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"[H]e axed after eggys: And the goode wyf answerde, that she coude not
speke no Frenshe ... And then at last a nother sayd that he woulde haue
hadde eyren: then the goode wyf sayd that she vnderstood hym wel." --
William Caxton
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