It still exists in Italian.I wonder if the dative of reference is easier for a speaker of a Romance language to grasp.
It still exists in Italian.I wonder if the dative of reference is easier for a speaker of a Romance language to grasp.
The non-English-speaking world calls it dativus commodi.Interestingly, one of my Latin grammars doesn't mention a dative of reference, but gives similar examples under a "dative of interest" which it classes as a type of indirect object.
It also exists in ... English.It still exists in Italian.
In English it can also be called dative of advantage or dative of disadvantage (depending on the context).The non-English-speaking world calls it dativus commodi.
Hmm... Are you thinking of things like "bake me a cake" or "sing me a song"? In any case, where French and, I guess, other Romance languages come closer to Latin is that the construction is commonly used there when body parts are involved: elle lui a cassé le bras, bracchium ei fregit, she broke him the arm, i.e. she broke his arm. Can you put it that way in German too, actually? I know that in German one washes oneself the hands, for instance, just as on se lave les mains in French. That's basically the same construction as in bracchium ei fregit, even though when it comes to washing one's hands in Latin the most usual way to go is without any dative or genitive, just manus lavare.It also exists in ... English.
Yes. The ethical dative is essentially the same phenomenon. English may have cut short in this construction, but it hasn't lost it completely. And it's still productive.Hmm... Are you thinking of things like "bake me a cake" or "sing me a song"?
Yes. It's I have broken me the arm German ... or I have me the arm broken to be more precise.Can you put it that way in German too, actually?
Is it the same if it's someone else's arm as in my Latin and French examples?Yes. It's I have broken me the arm German ... or I have me the arm broken to be more precise.
Yes.Is it the same if it's someone else's arm as in my Latin and French examples?
Well, there "her" is a direct object, at least in English.I have her in the face slapped. (<-- this one actually exists in English as well, which was my point)
That's only because you have no way of distinguishing direct and indirect objects by form.Well, there "her" is a direct object, at least in English.
What would it be in Old English.It's accusative in French: je l'ai frappée au visage (not lui).
Accusative.What would it be in Old English.
I don't doubt that it's a direct object in Modern English. I was questioning whether it was one historically. But if OE treated it with the accusative, I suppose it is.I'm not sure I follow you reasoning here. "Her" is clearly the direct object in "I slapped her".
I didn't get that. It looked to me as if you were arguing that it was still a dative of disadvantage/reference.I don't doubt that it's a direct object in Modern English. I was questioning whether it was one historically.
It can take either.Is folgian constructed with the accusative or with the dative?
The former.Do you say "Je l'ai persuadé" in French or "Je lui ai persuadé"?
It can take either.
The former.
How do you say ei bracchium fregit in OE?I didn't get that. It looked to me as if you were arguing that it was still a dative of advantage/reference.
I don't know if Old English has any verb meaning "slap" that takes the dative. The verb "slap" itself is much later, and has probably always taken a direct object.
It could already take the accusative in Old English (both constructions are found, as I said) but I agree the construction with the dative is probably earlier.That's what I mean. It takes a direct object now but was probably constructed with an indirect object originally.
I don't remember if the construction with the dative exists there, but it could be.How do you say ei bracchium fregit in OE?
It was only relevant for my claim that Modern English doesn't have indirect objects in the absence of a direct one, anymore, while OE still did.but the issue seems only tangentially related to the original discussion.