Re: Standard Average European (was: case system)

On Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:00:16 +0200, Benct Philip Jonsson wrote:

>Swedish has two idioms here, coming close to if not spot on a
>distinction between alienable and inalienable possession:
>
>_Han hade/gjorde sönder vasen för mig_
>
>'He had/did the vase broken for me' vs.
>
>_Han bröt benet på mig_
>
>'He broke the leg on me'
>
>Not quite the same topic, but goes to show an interesting diversity
>within European.
>
>Icelandic is like German, which makes one suspect
>that that pattern is a Germanic archaism.
Dative external possessors... There's also the German construction:

dem König seine Kleider
the-DAT king his cloths
'the king's cloths'

The possessor takes dative, the possession – which makes the head of this construction and
therefore takes whichever case required – has an extra possessive adjective to refer back to
the possessor. The construction is not standard German, but according to my linguistic prof,
it's found in dialects all over the German-speaking area, so it seems to stem from a common
older source.

I thought I stumbled once on some data that made me think that English once allowed a
similar construction, but I don't remember anymore.

---
grüess
mach

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