Re: Ditransitivity
| From: | taliesin the storyteller <taliesin-conlang@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, December 22, 2003, 12:01 |
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* Estel Telcontar said on 2003-12-13 03:17:30 +0100
> 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"?
This is the opposite of what you asked but I think it's neat: In Basque,
all verbs might have an indirect object (marked with dative), even the
intransitive ones! Just think about it, you can always say that you did
something on behalf of someone, for someone, and this dative covers that.
Why is this relevant? Because the verb agrees with the dative, whatever it
acts as, along with the subject and object.
|io| is Basque for have[*], present tense, agrees with a third person
singular subject marked for ergative, a third person singular object
marked for absolutive, -and- a third person singular indirect object or
something, marked for dative.
[*] If I read the declension-tables correctly
t., done with exams, yay!