dativenominative

The dativenominative is a grammatical construction found in some languages, notably in historical forms of German and certain Slavic languages. It involves a verb that typically takes a dative object, but the subject of the sentence is expressed using a dative case instead of the nominative case, which is the usual subject case. This means the "doer" of the action is in the dative, while the "receiver" or affected entity might be in the nominative or accusative.

This construction often expresses states of being, sensations, or involuntary actions. For example, in older German, one might say something akin to "Mir ist kalt" which translates to "To me is cold," where "mir" (to me) is in the dative and functions as the subject, and "kalt" (cold) is the predicate adjective. In modern German, this has evolved into the more standard "Ich friere" (I am freezing) or "Mir ist kalt" where "kalt" is the subject and "mir" is the dative object.

The dativenominative highlights how grammatical cases can shift their functions across languages and over time. It is a feature that can be challenging for learners of languages that exhibit it, as it deviates from the more common subject-verb-object structure where the subject is in the nominative. Understanding the dativenominative requires recognizing that the semantic roles of agent and patient can be realized through different case markings depending on the verb and the language's grammatical system.