The dative of agent in Indo-European languages
Abstract
The paper discusses various constructions of ancient Indo-European languages that have been described as featuring a dative of agent. The occurrence of the dative can be explained either through its beneficiary meaning, or as indicating an experiencer. In fact, a number of passages that have been taken as evidence for the reconstruction of a dative of agent do not contain agent phrases at all. Thus, while different constructions have parallels in two or more ancient languages, it is impossible to reconstruct a dative of agent as a unified category for PIE, except in the case of nominal verb forms denoting obligation.
Abbreviations
- abl
ablative
- acc
accusative
- aor
aoriste
- art
article
- cmp
comparative
- dat
dative
- dem
demonstrativ
- det
determiner
- dir
directive
- du
dual
- f
feminine
- fut
future
- gen
genitive
- gerve
gerundive
- IE
Indo-European
- impf
imperfective
- inf
infinitive
- inst
instrumental
- int
interrogative
- loc
locative
- m
masculine
- mid
middle
- n
neuter
- neg
negation
- nom
nominative
- NP
noun-phrase
- opt
optative
- p
passive
- pf
perfective
- pl
plural
- poss
possessive
- prev
preverb
- prs
present
- pst
past
- ptc
particle
- ptcp
participle
- refl
reflexive
- rel
relative
- sg
singular
- sbj
subject
- subj
subjunctive
- voc
vocative
Names of authors and works
- Andr.
Andria
- Att.
Letter to Atticus
- BC
The Civil War
- Caes.
Caesar
- Cat.
Catullus
- Cic.
Cicero
- CIL
Corpus of Latin Inscription
- Crit.
Crito
- De Or.
De Oratore
- Epid.
Epidicus
- Hdt.
Herodotus
- Il.
Iliad
- Inv.
De Inventione
- KBo
Keilschrifttexten aus Bogazköy (English translation??)
- KUB
Keilschrift Urkunden aus Bogazköy (English translation)
- Od.
Odyssey
- Otfr.
Otfrid
- Ph.
Phormio
- Phil.
Philo
- Pl.
Plato
- Rep.
The Republic
- RV
Rig Veda
- Ter.
Terentius
- Th.
Thucydides
- Tht.
Theethetus
- Toch A
Toacharian A
- Yt.
Yashts
References
Bartholomae, Christian. 1904. Altiranisches Wörterbuch. Straßburg: Trübner.Search in Google Scholar
Bartholomae, Christian. 1915. Die Zendhandschriften der K. Hof- und Staatsbibliothek in München. München: Palm in Komm.Search in Google Scholar
Bauer, Brigitte. 2000. Archaic syntax in Indo-European. The spread of transitivity in Latin and French. Berlin/New York: Mouton De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110825992Search in Google Scholar
Bichlmeier, Harald. 2011. Ablativ, Lokativ und Instrumental im Jungavestischen. Hamburg: Baar.Search in Google Scholar
Brugmann, Karl. 1911. Grundriß der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen. II. Band: Wortbildungslehre. 2. Hälfte 2. (Schluss-)Lieferung: Verbale Stammbildung und Flexion (Conjugation). Strassburg: Trübner.Search in Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan L., Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Chantraine, Pierre. 1953. Grammaire homérique.Tome 2: Syntaxe. Paris: Klinksiek.Search in Google Scholar
Chantraine, Pierre. 1961. Morphologie historique du grec2. Paris: Klinksiek.Search in Google Scholar
Danesi, Serena. forthcoming. Between the historical languages and the reconstructed language: The ‘verbal adjective + dative’ construction in Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Avestan, Tocharian, Lithuanian.Search in Google Scholar
De la Villa, Jesús. 1998. La agentividad en la lengua homérica. In María Esperanza Torrego (ed.), Nombres y functiones: Estudios de sintaxis griega y latina, 147–180. Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas.Search in Google Scholar
Duhoux, Yves. 2014. Gerundive (Verbal adjective). In Giorgios K. Giannakis, Vit Bubenik, Emilio Crespo, Chris Golston, Alexandra Lianeri, Silvia Luraghi & Stephanos Matthaios (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics, vol. 2, 13–15. Leiden: Brill.Search in Google Scholar
Friedrich, Johannes. 1960. Hethitische Grammatik. Heidelberg: Winter.Search in Google Scholar
George, Coulter H. 2005. Expressions of agency in Ancient Greek. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511482984Search in Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E. 2013. Constructionist approaches. In Thomas Hoffmann & Graeme Trousdale (eds.), The Oxford handbook of construction grammar, 15–31. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195396683.013.0002Search in Google Scholar
Green, Alexander. 1913.The dative of agency: A chapter of Indo-European case-syntax. New York: ColumbiaUniversity Press.Search in Google Scholar
Grillborzer, Christine. 2011. Dative subjects in Russian: The evolution of subject-like properties from Old to Modern Russian. Paper presented at the Workshop Changes in case and argument structure in the ancient and archaic Indo-European languages, Bergen 13 May 2011.Search in Google Scholar
Grillborzer, Christine. 2014. Синтаксис Конструкций с Первым Дательным Актантом – Синхронный и Диахронный Анализ. Universität Regensburg: Ph.D. Thesis,Search in Google Scholar
Hettrich, Heinrich. 1990. Der Agens in passivischen Sätzen altindogermanischer Sprachen. Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen 2. 57–108.Search in Google Scholar
Hettrich, Heinrich. 2014. Zum Agens in passivischen Sätzen des Rigveda. In Cyril Brosch & Annick Payne (eds.), Na-wa/i-VIR.ZI/A MAGNUS.SCRIBA – Festschrift für Helmut Nowicki zum 70. Geburtstag, 107–112. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Search in Google Scholar
Hoffner, Harry A. & H. Craig Melchert. 2008. A grammar of the Hittite language. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.10.5325/j.ctv240djsfSearch in Google Scholar
Humbach, Helmut & Pallan Ichaporia. 1994. The heritage of Zarathustra: A new translation of his Gathas. Heidelberg: WinterSearch in Google Scholar
Humbert, Jean. 1960. Syntaxe grecque3. Paris: Klinksiek.Search in Google Scholar
Jankuhn, Harald. 1969. Die passive Bedeutung medialer Formen untersucht an der Sprache Homers. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,Search in Google Scholar
Jasanoff, Jay. 2006. The origin of the Latin gerund and gerundive: A new proposal. In Harvey Goldblatt & Nancy Shields Kollman (eds.), Rus’ Writ Large: Languages, histories, cultures. Essays presented in honor of Michael S. Flier on his sixty-fifth birthday (= Harvard Ukrainian Studies 28(1-4)), 195–208.Search in Google Scholar
Kellens, Jean & Eric Pirart. 1988. Les textes vieil-avestiques. Introduction, texte et traduction. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Search in Google Scholar
Kittilä, Seppo& FernandoZúñiga. 2010. Introduction: Benefaction and malefaction from a crosslinguistic perspective. In FernandoZúñiga& SeppoKittilä(eds.), Benefactives and malefactives. Case studies and typological perspectives, 1–28. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.92Search in Google Scholar
Krause, Wolfgang & Werner Thomas. 1960. Tocharisches Elementarbuch. Heidelberg: Winter.Search in Google Scholar
La Roche, Jacob. 1861. Beobachtungen Ueber Den Gebrauch Von Hypo Bei Homer. Zeitschrift für die Osterreichischen Gymnasien 12. 337–377.Search in Google Scholar
Lehmann, Christian, Yong-Min Shin & Elisabeth Verhoeven. 2000. Direkte und indirekte Partizipation. Zur Typologie der sprachlichen Repräsentation konzeptueller Relationen. München: Lincom Europa.Search in Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia. 1986. On the distribution of instrumental and agent markers for human and non-human agents of passive verbs in some Indo-European languages. Indogermanische Forschungen 91. 48–66.Search in Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia. 1991. Paradigm size, possible syncretism, and the use of cases with adpositions in inflectional languages. In Frans Plank (ed.), Paradigms: The economy of inflection, 57–74. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110889109.57Search in Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia. 2003. On the meaning of prepositions and cases: The expression of semantic roles in Ancient Greek. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.67Search in Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia. 2004. The evolution of the Greek nominal paradigms: Economy and case syncretism from Mycenean to Modern Greek. Classica et Mediaevalia 55. 361–379.Search in Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia. 2010a. The extension of the passive construction in Ancient Greek. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 42(1). 60–74.10.1080/03740463.2010.486919Search in Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia. 2010b. Experiencer predicates in Hittite. In Ronald I. Kim, Norbert Oettinger, Elisabeth Rieken & Michael J. Weiss (eds.), Ex Anatolia Lux. Anatolian and Indo-European studies in honor of H. Craig Melchert on the occasion on his sixty-fifth birthday, 249–264. Ann Arbor: Beech Stave Press.Search in Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia. 2010c. Where do beneficiaries come from and how do they come about? In Margaret E. Winters,Heli Tissari & Kathryn Allan (eds.), Historical cognitive linguistics, 93–131. Berlin/New York: Mouton-De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110226447.93Search in Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia. 2010d. Adverbial phrases. In Philip Baldi & Pierluigi Cuzzolin (eds.), A new historical syntax of Latin, 19–107. Berlin/ New York: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110215458.19Search in Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia. 2014. Plotting diachronic semantic maps: The role of metaphors. In Silvia Luraghi & Heiko Narrog (eds.), Perspectives on semantic roles, 99–150. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.106.04lurSearch in Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia, Anna Pompei & Stavros Skopeteas. 2005. Ancient Greek. München/New Castle: Lincom Europa.Search in Google Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia & Eleonora Sausa. 2015. Hate and anger, love and desire: The construal of emotions in Homeric Greek. In Dag T. T. Haug (ed.), Historical linguistics 2013, 233–256. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.10.1075/cilt.334.13lurSearch in Google Scholar
Madariaga, Nerea. 2015. Change in the syntax of non-finite structures and the dative of subordination in East Slavic. Journal of Historical Linguistics 5(1). 139–174.10.1075/jhl.5.1.05madSearch in Google Scholar
Mariani, Manuela. 2002. The Latin and Greek ‘Dativus Agentis’: Inheritance, convergence or interference?Glotta 78(1–4). 116–135.Search in Google Scholar
Macdonell, Arthur A. 1916. A Vedic grammar for students. Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass.Search in Google Scholar
Miller, Wsewolod. 1876. Ueber den letto-slavischen Infinitiv. Beiträge zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der arischen, celtischen und slawischen Sprachen 8, 156–174.Search in Google Scholar
Risch, Ernst. 1984. Gerundivum und Gerundium. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110850772Search in Google Scholar
Sausa, Eleonora. 2011. L’orientamento della valenza in greco omerico. MA Thesis, Pavia.Search in Google Scholar
Schmidt, Karl Horst. 1963. Zum Agens beim Passiv. Indogermanische Forschungen 68. 1–12.Search in Google Scholar
Schwyzer, Eduard. 1943. Zum persönlichen Agens beim Passiv.(Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Nr. 10). Berlin: Akademie der Wissenschaften.Search in Google Scholar
Schwyzer, Eduard. 1950. Griechische Grammatik, vols 2. München: Beck.Search in Google Scholar
Senn, A. 1966. Handbuch der litauischen Sprache. Heidelberg: Winter.Search in Google Scholar
Traugott, Elisabeth C. & Graeme Trousdale. 2013. Constructionalization and constructional changes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199679898.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Tronci, Liana. 2014. Verbal adjectives. In Giorgios K. Giannakis, Vit Bubenik, Emilio Crespo, Chris Golston, Alexandra Lianeri, Silvia Luraghi & Stephanos Matthaios (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics, vol. 3, 471–477. Leiden: Brill.Search in Google Scholar
Verhoeven, Elisabeth. 2007. Experiential constructions in Yucatec Maya. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.87Search in Google Scholar
©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Non-central usages of datives
- The dative of agent in Indo-European languages
- Dative subjects in Germanic
- Dem Herrgott sei Scheenster
- The syntax of external and internal possessor variation in German inalienable possession
- External possession and constructions that may have it
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Non-central usages of datives
- The dative of agent in Indo-European languages
- Dative subjects in Germanic
- Dem Herrgott sei Scheenster
- The syntax of external and internal possessor variation in German inalienable possession
- External possession and constructions that may have it