[Lexicog] meaning and usage of "on me"

[Kenneth Keyes]

Wow, Thank you John, and everyone else, Mike, Benjamin, Scott! I'll search on our language for this, and ask my local colleague how this would be expressed in his language!
 
I'm jazzed!
 
Ken

  _____  

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com [mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of John Roberts
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 1:02 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Lexicog] meaning and usage of "on me"



Dear Ken,

This form of 'on me' in English can be categorized as the malefactive. In many languages the form that is used to express the benefactive is also used to express the malefactive, a deed done for the disbenefit of someone. English is a language that uses different forms to express benefactive/malefactive. Typically English uses 'for' to express benefactive and 'on' to express malefactive.

In Amele (Papuan) the same form is used to express both notions. Benefactive can be expressed by an applied object, as in (1), or by the postposition 'nu', as in (2). But malefactive can only be expressed by an applied object, as in (3) and (4). 

1) Jo       eu  ceh-i-t-i-a.
    house that build-APPL-1sg.OO-3sg.SU-TODP
    'He built that house for me.'

2) Jo       eu  ija=nu    ceh-ei-a.
    house that 1sg=for build-3sg.SU-TODP
    'He built that house for me.'

3) Uqa ija=na  ho  q-i-t-i-a.
    3sg  1sg=of pig hit-APPL-1sg.OO-3sg.SU-TODP 
    ‘He killed my pig on me.’ 

4) Ene  cain     salal-i-t-ag-aun.
    here PROH slide-APPL-1sg.OO-2sg.SU-NEGF 
   ‘Don’t slide here and annoy me (coll. don’t slide on me here).’

There appear to be a number of articles posted on the internet describing benefactive/malefactive marking in different languages.

John Roberts



Kenneth Keyes wrote: 


? 
Dear All, 
 
Just a quick query. Have you thought about the phrase "on me" when preceded by a verb?  Someone recently asked me about the meaning of "on me". He quoted Harry Truman's statement regarding Gen. Douglas MacArthur's insubordination: "I don't want him to resign on me, I want him fired!" What do you think of the phrase "on me"? Is is a transitivizer? What does it mean? This is different than its usual meaning as preposition as in the famous "lean on me". I think it must mean "without my permission", or "against my will".  
 
Here are some examples I thought of: 
 
Don't leave on me.
Don't quit on me. 
Don't up and marry on me. 
Don't die on me!
 
I hope he doesn't...on me. 
I'm afraid he might...on me. 
 
Can you think of other examples? (Just a hint, using Google wasn't very helpful.)
 
Is there a text corpus where we can specify "any verb [any tense, any person, any number ]" followed by the phrase "on" followed by an accusative/dative personal pronoun? How long can a phrasal verb incorporating "on me" be?
 
I am fascinated by this question. I hope you are too. Many thanks in advance, 
 
Ken
 
 



 

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