argument structure k'u etc.

[Pamela Munro]

David,

Of course I agree with you that Lakhota 'give' only marks two arguments
on the verb. But can you explain why you feel the patient (I agree with
you that it doesn't seem right to call it either an accusative or a
direct object) is not an argument? Is there syntactic evidence that, for
example, in a sentence with three nouns ('The chief gave the horse to
the woman', or the like) the patient ('horse') behaves syntactically
different from 'woman'?

Pam

ROOD DAVID S wrote:

>Many languages, like Lakhota, do not use datives for the recipient of the
>verb 'give': 'give' is syntactically transitive, not ditransitive; only
>two participants are indexed in the verb, and one of them is the
>recipient.  The so-called accusative or direct object is not an argument.
>
>

--
Pamela Munro,
Professor, Linguistics, UCLA
UCLA Box 951543
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1543
http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/munro/munro.htm