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Dear Kenneth,<br>
This form of "ethical dative" is also to be found in French (Ils ont
été <u>lui </u>casser le guidon de sa bicyclette / ??they went and
broke his bike's handlebar <u>on him</u>; Et pour couronner le tout,
ils ont été lui convaincre son fils de s'enrôler dans l'armée / ??and
to top it all, they went and convinced her son to join the army <u>on
her</u>), and I believe a number of other languages (e.g. Spanish: Mi
niño no me come / ??my son refuses to eat <u>on me</u>). There would
appear to be a strong (though perhaps not exclusively) detrimental
justification to this structure (confirmed by your own examples).<em></em><br>
As regards English, I vaguely recollect reading smth to the effect that
the 'on me' phrase was calqued on the Irish language.<br>
Best,<br>
Marc<br>
<br>
Kenneth Keyes wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:001101c931ec$d10b2060$6401a8c0@lifebook"
type="cite">
<div id="ygrp-text">
<p>
</p>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008">Dear All, </span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008"></span></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008">Just a quick query. Have you thought about
the phrase "on me" when preceded by a verb? Someone recently asked me
about the meaning of "on me". He quoted Harry Truman's statement
regarding Gen. Douglas MacArthur's insubordination: "I don't want him
to resign <strong><u>on me</u></strong>, I want him fired!" What do
you think of the phrase "on me"? Is is a transitivizer? What does it <strong><u>mean</u></strong>?
This is different than its usual meaning as preposition as in the
famous "lean on me". I think it must mean "without my permission", or
"against my will". </span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008"></span></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008">Here are some examples I thought of: </span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008"></span></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008">Don't leave <strong>on me</strong>.</span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008">Don't quit <strong>on me</strong>. </span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008">Don't up and marry <strong>on me</strong>.
</span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008">Don't die <strong>on me</strong>!</span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008"></span></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008">I hope he doesn't...on me. </span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008">I'm afraid he might...on me. </span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008"></span></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008">Can you think of other examples? (Just a
hint, using Google wasn't very helpful.)</span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008"></span></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008">Is there a text corpus where we can specify
"any verb [any tense, any person, any number ]" followed by the phrase
"on" followed by an accusative/dative personal pronoun? How long can a
phrasal verb incorporating "on me" be?</span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008"></span></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008">I am fascinated by this question. I hope
you are too. Many thanks in advance, </span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008"></span></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008">Ken</span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008"></span></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span
class="938365212-19102008"></span></font> </div>
</div>
<!--End group email --> </blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr. Marc FRYD
Senior Lecturer in English Linguistics
Faculté des Lettres et des Langues
Université de Poitiers
95 avenue du Recteur Pineau
86022, Poitiers, France
Office: 05 49 45 48 11
Cell: 06 76 28 18 50
</pre>
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