Imagine a language with the following object markers (of whatever kind - prepositions, postpositions, morphology, etc):
accusative - marks exclusively the direct object. Might be identical to the subject case (i.e. unmarked), or might be marked somehow.
dative - marks exclusively the indirect object
objective(?) - marks either, but only one at a time
The objective and accusative distinguish whether the direct object is definite - or some other similar distinction. Also, if the indirect object can be seen as losing from the transaction, it will be marked by the objective. In that case, the definiteness of the direct object is less salient, and thus it cannot take the objective case. In case the definiteness is salient, it is more likely that the listener already knows of the negative implications of being given the object, and thus no such marking on the recipient.
No comments:
Post a Comment