Instrumental in intransitive constructions

[Wolfgang Schulze]

Dear friends,
if we consider more closely the universe of grammatical relations (or, 
in my terms, relational primitives), we can start from the assumption 
that the space of the three 'basic' primitives S, A, and O maybe marked 
for other, more or less hybrid (pseudo-)primitives, the most prominent 
of which is (in secondary dative languages) the pseudo-primitive IO 
(Indirect Objective), by itself a hybrid resulting from A- and 
O-properties. The A-domain can be marked analogically. Here, the 
relevant pseudo-primitive seems to be what is conventionally called 
Instrumental (in its basic function). Personally, I use the label 
Indirect Agentive (IA) to denote this behavioral pattern of basically 
non-human (better: inanimate?) co-referents of A. Hence the basic 
pattern for transtives would be

A (+IA) -> O (+ IO),

for example German

"Ich (A) schlug dem Hund (IO) mit einem Schwert (IA) den Schwanz (O) ab" 
("I cut off the dog's tail with a sword" (sorry for this example)).

My question now is whether you know of any language that distinguishes 
systematically (!) an IA (that is, a true instrumental as an 
"equippment" of A) from an instrumental used with intransitive S 
(Subjective) (that is a hypothetical 'Indirect Subjective', IS), for 
instance in a phrase like 'Ich flog mit dem Flugzeug' ("I went by 
plane"). I know of some languages that seem to prefer locate 
constructions instead of basic instrumental ones to encode IS. But I 
wasn't yet able to find a language in which IA and IS are systematically 
distinguished with the help of specific morphological or morphosytactic 
patterns. Or can we assume that 'true instumentals' only go with 
referents in A function? [By 'true instrumental' I mean that the 
referent at issue shares much of its prototypical properties with its A, 
except for features like 'instigation', 'control' etc.].
Thanks in advance for any kind of help and advice,
best wishes,
Wolfgang
   
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Prof. Dr. Wolfgang 
Schulze                                                                    

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