rarum 123: the verb ‘to eat’ grammaticalized as middle or auto-benefactive marker (‘to do something for oneself, on one’s own’), possibly via a meaning ‘to enjoy’
Where found
Athpare, Bantawa, Belhare, Lahu (Tibeto-Burman); Ho (Munda, Austro-Asiatic)
Domain
semantics
Subdomain
polysemy
Keywords
grammaticalization, benefactive
Type
rarum
Universals violated
none
Source
Ebert, Karen H. (1998). Finite forms in nonfinite function. Working Paper No. 7, Universität Zürich, Seminar für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft. Bickel, Balthasar (2001). Belhare. In Graham Thurgood & LaPolla Randy J.(eds.), The Sino-Tibetan Languages. London: Curzon Press.
Any connection to ‘eat’ being grammaticalized as a passive auxiliary in South Asia (Munda, Sinhala, perhaps Bengali), ‘to be beaten’ = ‘to eat a beating’?
Any connection to ‘eat’ being grammaticalized as a passive auxiliary in South Asia (Munda, Sinhala, perhaps Bengali), ‘to be beaten’ = ‘to eat a beating’?