[Ads-l] Loss of the English dative "home"? / "Exit out of"

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Mon Feb 9 21:35:23 UTC 2015


At 2/9/2015 02:13 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>On Feb 9, 2015, at 1:06 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> > On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 8:40 AM, guy1656 at centurylink.net <
> > guy1656 at centurylink.net> wrote:
> >
> >> Isn't "whom" and it's derived words all we have left of the dative in
> >> English?
> >>
> >> Related question: Do 'hence, hither, whence, and whither' still mark
> >> accusative (if they ever did?)
> >>
> >
> > "Him," "them," and " 'em" are also historical datives. In the Slavic
> > languages, this -m still marks the dative.
>
>And even closer, in German (dem, einem, 
)

Let's not be male chauvinist pigs.  There's also "her".

And (in both languages) aren't they also 
accusative markers?  "I gave him <something>" / 
"I hit him".  I won't attempt the analog in German.

P.S.  My first typing of "accusative" above was 
"accursative".  A Freudian Fingerfehler?

Joel


>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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