LINGUIST List 11.2019

Sat Sep 23 2000

Qs: Frequency Dictionary/OE, Causative Construction

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  • Berg, Frequency Dictionary of Old English
  • Ruprecht von Waldenfels, causative constructions

    Message 1: Frequency Dictionary of Old English

     Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 16:32:44 +0200
    From: Berg <thomas_bergrrz.uni-hamburg.de>
    Subject: Frequency Dictionary of Old English




    Dear Linguist, Has anybody heard of a frequency dictionary of Old English? I would appreciate the tiniest piece of information that you might share with me.

    Thomas Berg

    - **************************************** Thomas Berg Universit�t Hamburg Seminar f�r Englische Sprache und Kultur Von-Melle-Park 6 20146 Hamburg Germany

    New phone number: phone: 49-40- 4 28 38 -4848 fax: 49-40- 4 38 38 -4856

    Message 2: causative constructions

     Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 11:49:16 +0200
    From: Ruprecht von Waldenfels <h0444tuvstudent.hu-berlin.de>
    Subject: causative constructions


    Dear List,

    I am working on the german analitycal causative construction involving the verb "lassen" and its equivalents in Russian. It has been disputed by Hubert (1980) that certain constructions involving "lassen" are indeed causative, following the crite ria forwarded by Shibatani (1976), i.e. that the causing event has to precede the caused event, and that the occurence of the caused event has to be dependent on the occurenc e of the causing event. The construction in question is best exemplified by the sentence

    "Peter liess den Mantel auf dem Tisch liegen" Peter left the coat lying on the table.

    Note that in the english translation neither of the analytic causative auxilliaries "have", "let" or "make" are involved.

    This sentence can be clearly interpreted as construing two events, i.e. (S1) Peter did something other than taking the coat (what exactly is not expressed) (S2) The coat was lying on the table.

    In order for the example to meet both of Shibatani's criteria, one must di vide the situation of the coat lying on the table in two: The coat lying on the tab le before an potential interference into that situation, and the same after such a potential intereference. Only then S2 can be seen as a consequence of S2.

    Now I wonder whether there are constructions in other languages that make use of some kind of broadly used causative marker to express such an noninterference into an ongoing situation.

    I would appreciate any examples from other languages and summarize on the list.

    Regards Ruprecht von Waldenfels