Re: Middle voice

On Fri, 25 Sep 1998, Sally Caves wrote:

> Me thinketh hit hefigtime for aenig otherum menn
> "To me it seems [that it is] difficult for any other man..."
>
> Me reweth, Marie, thy faire rod
> "Me it pains, Mary, your fair face "
>
> Actually, the use here of the dative in such OE verbs reminds me strongly
> of certain developments in ergative languages where the dative is used for
> subjects that think, feel, presume, etc.  Matt's Tokana utilizes this
> development.  Matt, was this an original construction for you or does it
> occur in natural languages?   Me feeling sad, to me feels sad.
Well, during the recent Tokana case reform (about which I posted a long
message that nobody responded to), I decided to merge the dative and the
locative into a single case form, and it is this case which subjects of
perception/emotion verbs appear in:

        ikimne      niohkoipa-s
        we-DAT/LOC  recognise-them
        "we recognise them"

        isan          kesta
        they-DAT/LOC  be.happy
        "they are happy"

This use of an oblique case to mark subjects of perception/emotion verbs
was indeed inspired by natlangs, although only a few natlangs have this
kind of construction productively (Georgian is one, I think, as are the
Carib languages of northern South America).  As you noted, some Germanic
languages have a small handful of verbs which take dative case subjects.
In generative syntax, these are referred to as "quirky case" verbs.

Matt.