Re: possessor

On 4/23/05, JS Bangs <jaspax@...> wrote:>> What these remind me of more than
anything is a use of the dativethat's common in Greek and Romanian and many
other languages. Thepossessor of the object of the phrase in these languages is
oftenexpressed through the dative case, so you say in Romanian> Eu îţi leg
papuciiI you-DAT tie the-shoes"I tie your shoes."> Over time the dative pronoun
could easily fuse with the verb (and inRomanian it's already a verbal clitic),
giving rise to what youdescribe.> Problems are that (1) I've only ever heard of
this being done with thepossessor of the object, and (2) it seems to only make
sense if theverb also agrees in the normal manner with its subject and/or
object.(2) is probably just an artifact of the languages I know that dothis--I
can't think of an a priori reason not to have this be the onlyform of
agreement.>
There are Mayan languages that use a very similar construction,marking the possessor
of the direct object as an indirect object. Orthe other way around -- the
direct object marked as possessed by theindirect object. Either way, highly
favored are sentences in whichthe indirect object (often a benefactive object)
possesses the directobject, and this sentence structure is used in many
instances where,in English, there is no indirect object or no possessor for the
directobject.
Here's a Tzotzil example from http://www.zapata.org/Tzotzil/
Ta xkik'be stzeb limol Xun e.FUT 1st-marry-3rd-I.O.-3rd 3rd-daughter the big John
TOPI'm going to marry Big John's daughter.
The suffix -be indicates a 3rd person indirect object (in this caseBig John). He's
not "really" an indirect object, but in the absenseof some "real" indirect
object he ends up on the verb.
Also, if it's at all possible, the direct object will be marked aspossessed by an indirect object.
Ijmanbe yixim li Xun e.PRF-1st-buy-3rd-I.O.-3rd 3rd-corn the John TOPI bought John his
corn.
Here's a question to consider: what happens when there's a string ofpossessors? "The
dog of the daughter of John." Who gets marked onthe verb? The first? The last?
All of them? (In Tzotzil it's thelast one: John.)

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