Brent wrote,
>No argument from me that Wallace creates new categories; however, in the
case of
>the ethical dative (dative of feeling), this is not the case. The same
terminology is
>used in Smyth (?1486) which dates back to 1920.
I see now that Wallace footnotes the the category with Robertson's *Short
Grammar*, 243. I guess that it is a new category only from my subjective
point of reference!
Edgar wrote,
>The ethical dative still survives in a few places in English, usually as an
> archaism. One example that occurs to me is the line from the old folk song
> "On Top of Old Rhodie":
>
> "Write me a letter,
> Send it by mail,
> Send it in care of
> Birmingham gaol."
>
> That me probably does indicate the recipient of the letter, but the
> beneficiary of the letter, "for me, on my behalf," i.e. to the jail
> authorities. I hope others can list examples of the ethical dative in
> English. [And "yes" in advance to those of you who will certainly point
out
> that this could also be a dativus commodi, closely related to the ethical
> dative.]
>
That's a reading of *Birmingham Jail/Gaol* that hadn't occured to me. I am
also especially intrigued by the title *On Top of Old Rhodie*. If we applied
source criticism to the folk song, would we find that the author composed
*Birmingham Jail* by editing *On Top of Old Smokie* and *Go Tell Aunt
Rhodie*? Does the author have some semantics (or further ethical) problems
when he interchanges *Smokie* and *Rhodie*? No wonder this guy's in the
gaol.
But all seriousness aside, your example raised further questions for me.
Does the Ethical Dative share some kind of semantic domain with the Dative
of Reference as well as the Dative of Advantage (Dativus commodi)? Or do
you disagree with Wallace that in Phil 1:21 (EMOI GAR TO ZHN XRISTOS) could
be an ethical dative?
Cindy Westfall
PhD Student Roehampton