Psych Verbs in Ergative Languages

[Hewitt, Stephen]

> Georgian has:
> 
> (1) split ergativity with transitives and unergative intransitives - subject(-object) as follows:
> 	(a) nominative-dative[=accusative] marking in present-future tenses;
> 	(b) ergative-nominative marking in preterite tenses;
> 	(c) "inverted" dative-nominative marking in perfect[=evidential] tenses;
> (2) no ergativity, nominative marking in all tenses, with passives and unaccusative intransitives; 
> (3) "inverted" dative-nominative marking in all tenses, with experiencer verbs of the sort you mention.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Steve Hewitt
> s.hewitt at unesco.org
> 
> -------
> 
> Carol Rosen wrote :
> 
> > I have a question about psych verbs in languages with ergative
> > morphology.
> >
> > English psych verbs, of course, vary a lot in how they treat the
> > experiencers. Verbs like remember, forget, fear take the experiencer as
> > subject, while such verbs as annoy, bother, frighten seem to take the
> > experiencer as direct object. In other languages the experiencer often
> > appears as a dative.
> >
> > I hope to discover whether any one of these patterns tends to be
> > preferred
> > in languages with ergative morphology.
> >
> > I'm grateful not only for data, but also for references to appropriate
> > sources. -- With thanks, Carol Rosen
> >
> 
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