"I'm gonna get me a dog" and the 'ethical dative'

clements clements at indiana.edu
Tue Sep 28 04:21:57 UTC 2004


The term 'ethical dative' is often used to name a similar phenomenon in
Spanish, of the type

Se 	ME 		murio' 	el 	gato.
EMPH   1sg-dative	died	the	cat
'My cat died on me.'

Esta 	nena 		no 	me 		come.
this	little.girl	NEG	1sg-dative	eats
'This little girl is not wanting to eat (for me).'

In Spanish, it seems more frequently in 1st and 2nd person than in
3rd. I don't know if anyone has studied the distribution of this in
English. It'd be interesting to know whether the distribution is sensitive
to person and number distinctions.

Clancy Clements


On Mon, 27 Sep 2004, Stahlke, Herbert F.W. wrote:

> I'm interested that you use the term "ethical dative" for this.  It's a term I also used when I suggested this analysis on the other list that Johanna and I discussed this on.  I learned the term from Greek and Latin studies, but it doesn't show up in English studies much.  There is one footnote on it in the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.
>
> Herb Stahlke
>
> ============
>
> I'm not a native speaker of English, so maybe I should be reluctant, but I
> do know that I own an album by a contemporary American songwriter on which
> the following line can be heard:
>
> "I went outside and I smoked myself a J "
>
> What is more, I also have an album by some other American songwriter  that
> has a song with the line:
>
> "I had me a girl in Minnesota/ She was only fillin'  her  quota"
>
> Both albums sold over three million copies, and I am not aware that any
> buyer has ever complained about bad English. So one thing I think should be
> clear: these what i would call "ethical  datives" are a real phenomenon of
> at least American English.
>
>
>
>
>

	*************************************************
	J. Clancy Clements
	Director of Undergraduate Studies, HISP
	Department of Spanish and Portuguese, BH844, IU-B
	1020 East Kirkwood Avenue
	Bloomington, IN 47401  USA
	Tel 812-855-8612
	Fax 812-855-4526
	Email clements at indiana.edu
	Webpage http://www.indiana.edu/~spanport/clements.html
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