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Re: THEORY: Can Ditransitive Verbs Agree With More Than Two Core A...

From:tomhchappell <tomhchappell@...>
Date:Thursday, May 19, 2005, 20:32
--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Doug Dee <AmateurLinguist@A...> wrote:
<...snip...>
> I'm almost certain that I read somewhere that in some languages, a
verb can
> agree with up to four arguments. The example sentence given was a
causative of
> a ditransitive, and the translation was something like "The old man
couldn't
> make the boys give the girl her dog back." > > The language might have been Georgian, or something else in the
Caucasian
> area. > I cannot find the reference just now Perhaps this will jog someone
else's
> memory. > > Doug
That would be so cool! It sounds a little like something I was browsing on-line about evidence for a genetic relationship between the languages of the Pyrenees, the Caucasus, and the Himalayas. I can't remember the authors, but one of them had a name famous among the papers on alignment and head- vs. dependent- -marking; (maybe it was Nichols or Dixon.) If I get a chance to look it up again, and it was the right paper, I'll post a link to it. If not I'll just keep on looking like a guy who should have RTFM. ----- Tom H.C. in MI

Replies

Chris Bates <chris.maths_student@...>
tomhchappell <tomhchappell@...>