English Dative

Started by Yayo, October 01, 2011, 09:27:51 PM

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Yayo

Hi,
I've always wondered, since my knowledge of linguistics has been derived from learning Na'vi, does English have any dative equivalents? I can think of one, and that's whom.

E.g. "To whom did you wish to speak?"

I wondered if this was dative because of the direction, to, if it really exists.

Any thoughts?


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wm.annis

English does not have a dative.  It has, instead, several different ways to mark the roles that the dative plays in those languages that have it.  As you mention, "to" covers quite a few uses, though "for" sometimes matches common uses of the dative.  Finally, English plays some word order tricks:

  I gave the book to Bob.
  I gave Bob the book.

The dative proper is a piece of morphology, an overt marker on a word that indicates its case role.  Some languages have it, some do not.  All languages, do have the role that the dative marks, it just gets marked it many different ways.

Yayo

Okay, thanks for clearing that up!

What would whom be defined as? That was specifically my question.


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wm.annis

Quote from: Yayo on October 01, 2011, 09:37:44 PMWhat would whom be defined as? That was specifically my question.

English pronouns have nominative and oblique cases.  The oblique is the catch-all case for when the pronouns are used as objects (direct or indirect), or with prepositions.  Some grammars say instead that English as an "objective" case.

Yayo

Ah. Thank you, resident Linguist.


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Reiey fpi Sìtaron

Funny thing with the English dative is that all our so called "objective" pronouns were originally dative.

For example, the Old English accusative for "he" was "hine", and it was the dative form that was "him"

Same with the accusative for "she", which in Old English was "híe", and the dative was "hire" (> her)

Yayo

Interesting... Thanks for the information!


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