THEORY: accusativity marking [was Re: Viko Notes Question]
From: | Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...> |
Date: | Wednesday, June 26, 2002, 10:54 |
Quoting Jim Grossmann <steven@...>:
> Say, since English accusatives (e.g. us) also serves as predicates, should
> we still call the case accusative, or should we call it
> accusative-predicative?
Well, the case is what it is, and whatever name we give to it is
just a label, a catch-all for describing its functions. As long
as we do not Platonically insist that there is some otherworldly
"accusative case" out there of which we believe the English case
by that name is just an instatiation, and thereby try to force
our understanding of it into that mould, there should be no problem.
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Thomas Wier "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637 Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers
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