Dative Subjects (was: Re: Genetic Descent)

[Leo A. Connolly]

"A. G. Kozak" wrote:

> ----Original Message-----
>> From:          Leo A. Connolly [SMTP:connolly at memphis.edu]
>> 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.

This verb (which, BTW, came out as "flyncan" on my Mac, since the codes
for thorn and edh on a PC represent ligatures fl fi on the Mac) is far
from unique.  _like_ underwent the same change: the experiencer used to
be a dative object, but was then made subject.  OE also had _me
hyngrede_ 'I hungered', _swa: gesae:lde iu_ "thus happened to you", _hu:
hyre gespe:ow_ 'how her succeeded'.  _Methinks_ is the last remnant of a
once proud class of verbs that still survives in German: _mich dünkt_
'methinks', _mir scheint_ 'seems to me', _mich hungert_ 'me hungers',
_mich dürstet_ 'me thirsts'.

But was _Tyncean_ actually abandoned?  I don't think so.  If anything,
_Tencean_ 'cogitate' was, which (had it survived) would have yielded
modern *thenk or *thench, depending on whether the 3.sg. or 1.sg. was
generalized (cf. _seek_ beside compound _beseech_).  Methinks that
_Tyncean_ survived, acquiring the meaning (and grammar) of extinct *thenk/ch.

Leo Connolly