Re: Name that case

On Nov 11, 2007 2:55 PM, Gregory Gadow <techbear@...> wrote:
> Take a look at these two sentences:
>
> A) I gave the book TO YOU.
> B) I received the book FROM YOU.
>
> In sentence A, "to you" would take the dative case.
In most languages.  In some  it would take the allative - the English
can be interpreted either way.

> In sentence B, "from
> you" would take a different case (I know there is a proper name, but I
> can't remember what it is.)
Ablative.

> The conlang I am working on uses the same case in both sentences,
> basically "the second party involved in an act of transferral, neither
> the agent nor patient of the verb." Is there a proper name for this
> case?
Well, there are languages that use the dative this way; despite the
name, the Latin preposition "ab" sometimes governs the dative.  But as
for a proper term for specifically the wider scope, I don't know.



--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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