accusative cursing

[James Harbeck]

I perhaps ran with the ball a bit further on the Irish point than I
could justify, true; prescriptivism sometimes gets my dander up a
little. I don't think that the Irish and English usages are exactly
parallel -- and this asinum crossed the one-form-one-use pons some
time ago, so I really didn't mean to assert anything of that order --
but on the other hand I do think that it could be useful for
demonstrating to the prescriptivists that there are other uses for
the reflexive. Maybe it's just wishful thinking to imagine it would
change their minds, though...

I naturally don't know the depth of your acquaintance with the Irish
language; I speak it rather less well than I once did (and I was
never fluent), but my memory does seem to serve up some instances
that have a bit more in common with the English usages in question
than the simple fact of nonstandardness. But I'd feel privileged to
have the apparent commonalities swatted down in detail by you. I
wouldn't in any case want to assert that the one usage is the source
of the other or is otherwise directly connected to it; I have no data
for that. The main point I was heading towards was just to agree that
the insistence on a single-function model is inappropriate ("yes,
brother, yes! you speak the truth!"), a point that everyone here
seems to agree on, and to toss this bit of material into the
discussion (familiar though it may be to some). On the plus side, it
did bring forth Wilson's recollection, which I think may be of
interest as a possible influence on prescriptivism in this matter.

Ciao,
James Harbeck.

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