ruby sparks
Contributor
I think I see. So, are you saying that we limit the grammatical role of agent to those items we attribute agency to in this or that sentence?
If so, surely that seems to be getting very close to a tautology, because obviously, if we weren't attributing agency, we wouldn't give the item that grammatical role.
And you're saying this had to be........discovered, by some ancient Indian Lingo boffin or something, like it wasn't obvious.
Kidding. I guess you're just noting that we make the agent/non-agent distinction and that this distinction is universally present in all of our languages.
How about this one, 'the pebbles were thrown onto the beach by the waves'.
Maybe it's just me, but the waves don't seem to be attributed with much agency in that one. Is there room for that, would you say, or would you say that sentence attributes agency?
What I'm getting at is, are there exceptions? Are there ('valid') cases where we don't, in fact, make the distinction? Can we be 'agent-neutral' when it comes to something being actively causal (or as you put it, in 'commands')? Iow, is making the distinction universal or general?
This may or may not involve us saying what we mean by 'agency' of course. If we mean a capacity to choose, respond, decide or intend.....then, I'm not seeing that regarding those waves, even if they're in motion (are active).
If so, surely that seems to be getting very close to a tautology, because obviously, if we weren't attributing agency, we wouldn't give the item that grammatical role.
And you're saying this had to be........discovered, by some ancient Indian Lingo boffin or something, like it wasn't obvious.
Kidding. I guess you're just noting that we make the agent/non-agent distinction and that this distinction is universally present in all of our languages.
How about this one, 'the pebbles were thrown onto the beach by the waves'.
Maybe it's just me, but the waves don't seem to be attributed with much agency in that one. Is there room for that, would you say, or would you say that sentence attributes agency?
What I'm getting at is, are there exceptions? Are there ('valid') cases where we don't, in fact, make the distinction? Can we be 'agent-neutral' when it comes to something being actively causal (or as you put it, in 'commands')? Iow, is making the distinction universal or general?
This may or may not involve us saying what we mean by 'agency' of course. If we mean a capacity to choose, respond, decide or intend.....then, I'm not seeing that regarding those waves, even if they're in motion (are active).
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