Dative Subjects (was: Re: Genetic Descent)

[A. G. Kozak]

----Original Message-----
>From:     	Leo A. Connolly [SMTP:connolly at memphis.edu]
>To:         	[SMTP:rmccalli at sunmuw1.MUW.Edu];Indo-European at xkl.com
>Subj:     	Dative Subjects (was: Re: Genetic Descent)
>Sent:    	Wednesday, July 04, 2001 2:49 AM

.	.	.

>We formerly had such things -- think "methinks" -- an object in preverbal
>position not controlling verb agreement.  We have since solved our problem
>by making _me_ into a true subject _I_ -- with no change in meaning!

I can see what you're getting at, but isn't this a bit of an
oversimplification?  We haven't changed any object into a subject; we've simply
dropped the peculiar "methinks" from the language, mostly because it looks so
wrong to anyone unfamiliar with older forms of English.  If anyone had
remembered that "me-" is a dative and that "-thinks" is a reflex of AS.
"þyncan" ("to seem") and not "þencan" ("to think"), we'd probably all still
be saying it.  As it is, however, "methinks" ended up being the last remnant of
a verb otherwise lost in ModE., & so it was prone to be misunderstood and
finally abandoned.

A. G. Kozak
Department of Classics
University of California at Berkeley