Re: Core Cases (was Re: Ditransitivity (again!))

H. S. Teoh scripsit:

> My point then, was that the arguments of verbs with different valencies
> may not necessarily map to each other in an obvious way (or at all). For
> example, consider three verbs of differing valencies:
> a)      sit:    (1) the person/thing which sits
Lojban actually reckons this to have two places, the sitter and the sat-upon
surface.  But your point is sound.

> b)      love:   (1) the lover (2) the object of love
> c)      give:   (1) the giver (2) the thing given (3) the recipient
>
> Nothing says that (a)(1) is the same as (a)(2), or that (b)(2) is the same
> as (c)(2). It could easily be the case, in a particular language, that
> (a)(1) corresponds with (b)(2), and (b)(2) corresponds with (c)(3).
Indeed, Lojban abstains altogether from identifying any place of one predicate
with any other place of another: they are simply ordered, like arguments to
function calls.

> The mappings for "see" may seem odd, but only because the accusative
> mindset is used to thinking about agents and patients. In Ebisedian,
> agents and patients are irrelevant; the semantically important concepts
> are source and destination: from whence did the event originate, and to
> what is it directed at, rather than who/what did it, and who/what
> underwent it.
Well, this requires a fairly sophisticated world view.  Even Aristotle still
believed that seeing was a matter of something emerging from the eyes, rather
than entering them, IIRC.  (Of course, it may well be that he believed
that because he was a victim of Whorfian mind-lock.)

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