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Re: A tripartite case system

From:Nokta Kanto <red5_2@...>
Date:Thursday, March 25, 2004, 7:46
On Wed, 24 Mar 2004 18:52:48 -0500, Trebor Jung <treborjung@...> wrote:

>Since my conlang Tsán is tripartite (with agentive, patientive, and >experiencer cases, among others [what are some examples of tripartite >languages?--I just know how the concept works]), you can say >"He (agent) eats" (because he was hungry), "He (patient) eats" (because >someone caused (e.g. convinced) him to), and "He (experiencer) eats" (he is >forced to--he has no choice). Is this reasonable? If so, does it occur in >any natlangs; which ones?
What you describe is not typically expressed by case. Is 'eat' transitive? If so, then this doesn't sound plausible; your second case would be equivalent to "[agent] eats him." The third case would mean "He eats [patient]" if nominative, or "[agent] eats him" if accusative; I'm not sure what else it may mean. Here's the question: What's the difference between "he is eaten" and "someone made him eat"?