Re: Ergative?

Irina Rempt wrote:


> Comitative would only mean that he had the sword with him
> ("accompanied by a sword"), and would say nothing about whether he
> actually killed the dragon with it.
I remember reading, years ago, about a translation gaffe in which
the English sentence "The suspect was said to have been beaten
by a policeman with a billy-club" was rendered into (some language)
with "billy-club" in the comitative rather than the instrumental,
as if the billy-club had been the policeman's partner in the action!

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