personal dative

[Dennis R. Preston]

Sonja,

I think you are essentially right, although it has spread to other
South Midland (and South Midland influenced) areas. I (Louisville
flatlander) have it. I'd write to Michael Montgomery (South Carolina)
if I were you. I seem to recall a paper by him and one of his
colleagues on this very topic at an NWAV (Philadelphia?) some years
ago, but haven't seen it in print. As I recall they were trying to
develop a semantic constrast between sentences with and without the
personal dative (withm, as you would expect at an NWAV, lots of
authentic examples). If I'm wrong, I'm gonna get me a new head.

dInIs



>I'm looking for help finding information on the personal dative. The only
>article that I have been able to locate is Donna Christian's. I know that
>Margaret Mishoe gave a talk once on the topic but I can't find a published
>version of her talk. Are there any other articles out there to look at?
>Also is this feature primarly associated with the Scots-Irish influence
>in general? My impression (rightly or wrongly) is that the personal dative
>is considered a feature of Appalachian English. Is this correct or does it
>occur in other Am English dialects?
>
>Thanks
>Sonja Launspach
>_______________________________________________________________________
>Sonja Launspach
>Assistant Professor Linguistics
>Dept.of English & Philosophy
>Idaho State University
>Pocatello, ID 83209
>208-282-2478
>fax:208-282-4472
>email: sllauns at isu.edu

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736