Re: polysynthetic languages

Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...> wrote:

> The only difference is the addition of "te", the second person singular
> non-subject pronoun (affix actually in Spoken French :)) ). By adding it, I
> add the listener in the sentence, although the listener has nothing to do
> with the action described by the sentence. The pronoun is only there to
> make the sentence sound more lively, more interesting for the listener.
Isn't it the "ethical dative" discussed here some time ago?
I remember it was mentioned to appear in many languages, including
French and German and others more exotic. In Spanish it appears as
a means to mark the involvement of the *speaker*, usually, rather
than the listener. The canonical example:

    El nene no me come la comida.
    "The child doesn't eat *me the food."

Uttered by a mother, it shows her emotional involvement (concern)
for her child's not eating. Without the indirect pronoun _me_, as
in Christophe's example, it becomes a cold statement of fact.

As with French, this is not considered good Spanish; it's only
used colloquially.

I've never heard of a conlang with an "ethical dative". In some
of my conlangs there are particles or affixes that indicate
such things as emotional involvement (in Stálág they're called
"attitudinals").


--Pablo Flores
  http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/nyh/index.html
  "The future is all around us, waiting, in moments
   of transition, to be born in moments of revelation.
   No one knows the shape of that future or where it
   will take us. We know only that it is always born
   in pain."  -- G'Kar quoting G'Quon, in "Babylon 5"

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