"Frustratives"

[Ashild Naess]

Dear colleagues,

it appears that in a number of languages, subject arguments take some sort 
of non-canonical case-marking if the subject in question is unable to or 
prevented from performing the act he sets out to perform. Thus, in the 
following Hindi sentence (Wunderlich & Lakämper 2001/Mohanan 1994) the 
subject takes instrumental case:

Ravii-se    Raam-ko   piittaa     nahññ gayaa
Ravi-INST Ram-ACC beat.PERF not go.PERF
'Ravi couldn't (bring himself to) beat Ram.'

Which other languages are you aware of that show similar case-marking 
patterns? I'd appreciate any examples or references.
Also, has anyone got a good suggestion for a name for this phenomenon? I 
have tentatively labelled such constructions 'frustratives', but this term 
seems to be more commonly used for a  mood category. Is there any other 
term in use for constructions such as the above, or can you think of a good 
one? Specifically, I'd like to come up with a good term for the argument in 
question - an agent prevented from acting, or something of that sort.

Thanks in advance,



Åshild Næss


University of Nijmegen
Erasmusplein 1
6525 GG Nijmegen
THE NETHERLANDS

+31 24 3616028

a.naess at let.kun.nl 
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