Case marking in some Dravidian languages

[Coelho]

Hi Clancy Clements,

My guess is that in the first, the focus of causation is 'me' -- that is
the sentence would read "He made me eat the biscuit". In the second, the
focus of causation is 'the biscuit' -- that is the sentence would read "He
got the biscuit eaten through the agency of me". But I'd like to hear what
native speakers or linguists working on these languages say about it. Could
you send us a summary of the replies, please?

Gail Coelho

At 04:09 PM 12/27/01 -0500, J. Clancy Clements wrote:
>In Kannada, one finds the dative relation marked by the dative or the
>instrumental suffix, as in the examples below.
>
>Avanu-0 nana-ge bisket-annu tin-is-id-anu
>3SG-NOM 1SG-DAT biscuit-ACC eat-CAUS-PAST-3SG-MASC
>'He fed me the biscuit.'
>
>Avanu-0 nana-inda bisket-annu tin-is-id-anu
>3SG-NOM 1SG-INST biscuit-ACC eat-CAUS-PAST-3SG-MASC
>'He had me eat a biscuit.'
>
>This is the type of marking I'm interested in.
>
>
>My questions are:
>1) Regarding Malayalam, is there a difference in meaning (e.g. logical or
>conversational implicatures) between marking an indirect object with a
>dative or comitative marker?  If so, how would one describe the difference?
>
>2) Does Tamil have this type of marking, where the indirect object is
>marked by a dative suffix or by an instrumental or comitative suffix?  If
>so, are there differences in meaning expressing by using one or the other
>marker?  If so, how would one describe them?
>
>3) Does Telegu also have this type of marking??
>
>Any information on these questions would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks very much,
>
>
>Clancy Clements
>
>
>
>
>                 *********************************************
>                 J. Clancy Clements
>                 Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
>                 Adjunct Associate Professor of Linguistics
>                 Director of Undergraduate Studies
>                 Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, BH844, IU-B
>                 1020 East Kirkwood Avenue
>                 Bloomington, IN 47405
>                 Tel 812-855-8612; Fax 812-855-4526
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