Experiencer Constructions: ‘Fear’ (Feature 68)
From Apics
Navigation: ← prev | next → | Overview | Feature Areas | Socioling. Features
Feature Annotation
This is a third feature on experiencer constructions. Here we ask about the expression of situations corresponding to English The child is afraid. Such Fear-constructions may involve three semantic entities: the experiencer (the child), the sensation (fear), and the body-part (my heart/my soul).
There is a lot of interesting variation in such constructions. However, here we only concentrate on the question which semantic entity is expressed in the subject position, and whether we are dealing with a verbal/non-verbal or transitive/intransitive construction.
Note that in some languages the expression of the stimulus may entail different constructions (e.g. Principense lit. ‘I am with fear’ vs. ‘I fear the storm’). However, in this feature we disregard Fear-constructions in which the stimulus is expressed, i.e. we are looking at e.g. English The child is afraid, but not at The child isafraid of the dog. If there are interesting phenomena in your language depending on the expression of the stimulus, please comment in the “General comments” field.
Subject is defined here as the typical agent or the single argument in a monotransitive clause.
Additional remarks
....
Values
| Value | Value Annotation | |
| 1 | Experiencer in subject position, verbal construction | Ternateño Ta mjédu mótru [ipfv to fear 1pl] ' We are afraid.’ Note: Ternateño has VS-order. |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Experiencer in subject position,non-verbal construction | English I am afraid. Principense N sa ki mendu. [1sgcop with fear] ‘I am afraid.’ |
| 3 | Emotion in subject position, transitive construction | Vincentian Creole a piis a frait hool mi, [a piece a fear hold me] ‘Fear overcame me.’ |
| 4 | Emotion in subject position,intransitive construction | Something like “Fear comes over me.” |
| 5 | Body-part in subject position | Something like “My heart /my soul is shivering.” Early Sranan Mi hatti goweh [my heart go.away] ‘I am afraid.’ |
| 6 | Nothing in subject position | German Mir ist bang [to.me is afraid], lit. ‘To me afraid’ |
| 7 | Other | (Please give details in the “General comments” field.) |
WALS No.
(None)
