Tolowa dative/benefactive

[Matthew Dryer]

I think one needs to be careful about using a verb meaning 'tell' to see
how a language treats "dative" arguments, because in many languages the
verb meaning 'say' is morphologically and syntactically intransitive and
the verb meaning 'tell' is morphologically and syntactically
monotransitive, not ditransitive.  In Kutenai, for example, there are a
variety of tests that show that the verb for 'say' is intransitive, so that
the thing said, while semantically an argument of the verb, is
grammatically an oblique (e.g. the verb for 'say' takes nonspecific subject
marking, something that is only possible with intransitive verbs; and to
relativize 'what is said', one uses a relativizing construction that is
used for relativizing obliques, not the construction for relativizing
subjects and objects).  And one forms the verb for 'tell' by adding a
transitivizing suffix to the verb for 'say', so that the verb for 'tell' is
simply a monotransitive verb, and thus different from the verbs meaning
'give' or 'show'.

On the other hand, if Tom is right that the Tolowa verbs for 'show' and
'teach' are like the verb for 'tell' (especially when they take nonclausal
complements, as opposed to the meanings 'show that' or 'teach that'), then
these verbs would support his claim.

Matthew Dryer