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<p>Sebastian,</p>
<p>I was careful in my response to specify that I was talking abut
the Kirinda dialect of Sri Lankan Malay, because, in my notes, I
do see that you had once provided me with different data from the
Kandy dialect.</p>
<p>My citation of agent-marking <i>dari</i> in Kirinda (where it
actually surfaces as a postposition <i>(de)ring</i>) is based on
my own fieldwork there, subsequently corroborated by Peter
Slomanson, who has been working there for years.</p>
<p>Since the use of <i>dari</i> to mark agents is widespread in
those eastern Malay varieties on which Sri Lankan Malay is based,
I would suspect that — contrary to your suggestion — its
occurrence in Kirinda is a retention, and its (near-)loss in Kandy
an innovation.</p>
<p>David<br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 21/07/2018 13:17, Sebastian Nordhoff
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:1276a221-fb07-61ab-cb4a-3c7eab7c8f1c@glottotopia.de">
<pre wrap="">On 07/21/2018 11:47 AM, David Gil wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">More specifically, the use of /dari/ to mark agents is characteristic of
Eastern contact varieties of Malay; I have heard it in, among other
places, Papua, Halmahera, Ambon, Maluku Tenggara and Timor. And it is
also attested in the Kirinda subdialect of Sri Lankan Malay.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
The use of the ablative for agents in Sri Lanka Malay is normally
restricted to "institutional agents", like government, the police, a
board etc. This is a calque from the same use of the ablative in
Sinhala. I can provide references if required.
(It might be the case that in Kirinda, this has generalized further.)
Interestingly, the set of agents which take ablative marking in
Sinhalese and Sri Lanka Malay (institutional actors) seems to be
identical to the set where British English permits plural agreement
("The government have ...") and where Dutch uses feminine pronouns even
for neuter referents ("Het kabinet heeft haar kabinetsplannen
gepresenteerd", 'The(neuter) cabinet presented HER plans').
So [±institutional actor] is signaled by strategies involving case,
number, and gender in four different languages.
I have always wondered how a historically comparatively recent concept
like [institutional] can grammaticalize at all. I would not expect there
to be any cognitive disposition for this.
Best wishes
Sebastian
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</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
David Gil
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>
Office Phone (Germany): +49-3641686834
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81281162816
</pre>
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