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Syntax of Dative-Stative Verbs.

When the subject of the above verbs is animate (i.e., 1st or 2nd person, or 3rd person animate), it is in the dative case. Examples:

It may seem in these examples that the dative subject nouns are not actually subjects, since the other nouns (which would be objects in English) are in the nominative. However, this is shown not to be the case by the following examples: If the `object' noun is animate, it must as usual be marked accusative. Thus some sentences may seem to have no subject, since one noun is the dative and the other is the accusative. It is easier, therefore, to consider the dative case noun to be the semantic subject:

If we consider วย็ avaru `he' to be the subject, we cannot explain why it is marked accusative. The nouns in the other examples are merely neuter nouns unmarked for accusative, rather than subject-nominatives.



Vasu Renganathan
Sat Nov 2 21:16:08 EST 1996