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German voice: dative -> nominative: name?

From:Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
Date:Sunday, May 2, 2004, 23:39
Hi!

I'd like to know the name of what I'd call a voice in German promoting
the dative argument to nominative and demoting the original nominative
to oblique.  The voice is formed with the auxiliaries 'kriegen'
(colloquial) and 'bekommen' (formal, possibly w/ limited
availability):

Example:

Active voice:
   Ich     erkläre              Dir     den Text.
   I-NOM   explain-PRES/IND/1s  you-DAT the text-ACC.
   'I explain the text to you.' / 'I am explaining the text to you.'

Passive voice:
   Dir     wird   von mir der Text     erklärt.
   You-DAT become by  me  the text-NOM explained.
            \--------------------------/
             explain-PASSIVE-PRES/IND/3s
   'The text is explained to you by me.'

? voice:
   Du       kriegst von mir den Text      erklärt.
   You-NOM  get     by me   the Text-ACC  explained.
               \--------------------------/
               explain-??VOICE-PRES/IND/2s
   ?'You are explained the text by me.'

**Henrik

Reply

John Cowan <cowan@...>