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Re: Possession and genitivity

From:Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Date:Friday, April 29, 2005, 23:40
Ray Brown wrote:
> In Latin the genitive is used for the object of certain verbs (probably > development of the partitive use): > 1. verbs of 'filling' and 'lacking' - complere (to fill), abundare (to ), > egere (to lack), indigere (), carere (); > 2. verbs of remembering, and forgetting - mimenisse (tui memini "I > remember you"), oblivisci (to forget); the verb 'misereri' (to pity) also > governs the genitive.
(What about "miserere nobis"-- or is that Later (Church) Latin?) I probably knew that list 50 years ago as a schoolboy ;-)); so apparently it was lingering in the memory banks when I got to Kash. These verbs take their DO in the genitive case: kendra 'worship' teçayu 'yearn, long for' inga 'to lack, have no...' and as prep. 'without' orana 'to resemble' (in Old Kash, _umit_ 'to use' also took the genitive; but now takes the accusative) nimbur 'remember' and cuta 'forget' take the genitive when referring to long-term, firmly imprinted memory and total forgetting, respectively-- yunda minimbutro lerowi ya 'We shall always remember that day' mende macuta arani kaçiyi ya 'I have (totally forgotten/put out of my mind) that person's name' but with an ordinary acc/dat DO, refer to more temporary memory/forgetfulness: aka hanimbur etengiti? 'Did you remember [to bring] your book?' maturo, macuta arandi 'I'm sorry, I've forgotten your name' (the sort of thing you might say at a big party....) The genitive can also express the agent/cause of the essentially passive "accidental" verb-form: ne caka/sisa minayi he-dat ACCID/love mina-gen He is desperately/obsessively in love with Mina. me caka/çangi endaki yu rus me-dat. ACCID/sick meat-gen. that mouldy I got sick from that mouldy meat ne ca/lipakañu keyopori he-dat ACCID/mind.control alien-gen. He is under the mind-control of an alien

Reply

Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>USAGE miserere nobis (was: Possession and genitivity)