Re: case-marked experiencer

In a message dated 07/9/02 4:39:35 AM, eychenne.j@WANADOO.FR writes:

<< I am thinking of the number of cases I will use in sabyuka, and I am
wondering about a special case for experiencer. I know that a lot of
languages use different strategies to mark it ( for instance dative in
german with certain verbs) but I have never heard about a special case
in natlangs. So has anyone among you tried to use such a case?
Another way I had thought about is to use an ergative/absolutive
opposition so that :
I look at = I make myself see. >>

    Not a natural language, but one I created, has a system like this.  The
difference lies not in the subject, though, but the object.  So you can
have...

ani ajuheni viZa.
/1sg. ACC.-DEF.-rabbit see-PRES./
"I look at the rabbit."
    Both the verb and object are marked as non-experiencers, the object with
the prefix /a-/, and the verb with the suffix /-a/.  Thus, rather than "to
see", you get "to look at", which is more of an action which is performed by
the subject, rather than just something that happens to the subject whether
they like it or not.

ani ujuheni viZu.
/1sg. ACC.EXP.-DEF.-rabbit see-PRES.EXP./
"I see the rabbit."
    Now the verb and direct object take experiencer tags, the object the /u-/
prefix, and the verb the /-u/ suffix.  This way you indicate that the subject
merely experienced the sensation of sight on account of the rabbit, though
s/he may have had no active part in the experience (and the rabbit may not
have had a patientive part in the experience, either).

-David

"fawiT, Gug&g, tSagZil-a-Gariz, wAj min DidZejsat wazid..."
"Soft, driven, slow and mad, like some new language..."
                    -Jim Morrison

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