Re: Word Order in typology

Quoting Trebor Jung <treborjung@...>:

> Chris írta: "[Why] don't we say AVP instead of SVO etc?"
>
> The terms "subject" and "object" deal with syntactic roles. OTOH, "agent"
> and "patient" deal with argument roles. The terms are not interchangeable,
> since in many Western languages at least, subjects can be agents, patients,
> or experiencers (even tho they're marked with different cases-- but that's a
> different story altogether!).
What Western languages can mark subjects with different cases?

Basque, of course, and German if you interpret the dative as a subject in
sentences like _Mir ist kalt_ - that seems perverse to me, but a sufficient
proportion of books do it that I guess there's some tolerably good reason to do
it -, anything else? No, English "methinks" doesn' count however you analyze it!

                                                            Andreas

Replies