14.1833, Qs: Words for 'death'; Ditransitive/Passive Verbs

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-14-1833. Tue Jul 1 2003. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 14.1833, Qs: y

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1)
Date:  Mon, 30 Jun 2003 19:22:06 +0000
From:  "D. Alan Shewmon" <ashewmon at socal.rr.com>
Subject:  Words for "death"

2)
Date:  Mon, 30 Jun 2003 20:21:42 +0000
From:  Mark Donohue <ellmd at nus.edu.sg>
Subject:  Syntax,: trivalent verbs, passives and agreement

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 30 Jun 2003 19:22:06 +0000
From:  "D. Alan Shewmon" <ashewmon at socal.rr.com>
Subject:  Words for "death"

For a medical paper on brain death we are wondering whether there are
languages with

(1) more than one word for the phenomenon we call ''death''
(2) no equivalent for the English word ''death''

Re: (1), we are not thinking of joking, euphemistic or substandard
substitutes for the ''serious'' word for death.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

D. Alan Shewmon, MD
Department of Neurology
David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles


-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 30 Jun 2003 20:21:42 +0000
From:  Mark Donohue <ellmd at nus.edu.sg>
Subject:  Syntax,: trivalent verbs, passives and agreement

Im checking to see if its possible, in some symmetrical languages, to
have a trivalent (ditransitive, three-place) verb simultaneously
display passive morphology AND object agreement, for the remaining
object. I have one example from Pancana (Austronesian, SE Sulawesi,
Indonesia):

No-ala-angko-e 		(o sabo)
3R.SUBJ-fetch-2SG.OBJ2-3OBJ1 ART soap
They fetched it for you.

O sabo	  no-ti-ala-angko
ART soap	3R.SUBJ-PASS-fetch-2SG.OBJ2
Soap was fetched for you.

The catch with Pancana is that the object agreement isnt quite what
youd expect; if we passivise on the beneficiary, the agreement for
soap is the OBJ2 set (usually reserved for beneficiaries and things
that, if nominal, would require an applicative suffix on the verb),
not the (expected) OBJ1 set:

O-ti-ala-ane                  (o sabo)
2SG.R.SUBJ-PASS-fetch-3SG.OBJ2	ART soap
You had the soap fetched for you.

* Otialae (o sabo)

Im wondering if anyone knows of a language with this sort of
behaviour, though ideally one in which the same object agreement
markers are used in the passive as are used in the active, regardless?
Im thinking Bantu or Mayan, but that simply reflects what Ive read
most of. Any data will be appreciated, quotes from published works
more than others.

-Mark

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