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Re: Ditransitivity

From:Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Date:Saturday, December 13, 2003, 3:21
Quoting Isidora Zamora <isidora@...>:

> At 09:17 PM 12/12/03 -0500, you wrote: > >For my all-verb language, I'm trying to figure out what to do with > >ditransitives like "give". Basically, I see two options: either do > >away with ditransitives, or add verbal indirect-object marking and a > >dative case. > > > >Does anyone know if there is a way to get rid of ditransitives? Id you > >don't want to have indirect objects, how can you deal with concepts > >like "give"? > > Can you get rid of ditransitives by replacing the dative case with an > adverb? I mean, instead of having a dative case and marking the IO of the > verb with the dative case, make the IO of the verb an adverb. e.g. He gave > the book John-ly = He gave the book to John. I realize that this means > turning a noun or pronoun into an adverb, which is not a normal thing to > do, in my own experience.
As far as I can see, this would only be a change of PoV; step back to the traditional view, and English just acquired a dative/benefactive case in -ly. Andreas