1. Are there linguistics terms that describe the following phonemenon?
2. I desire to learn the possible explanations or reasons that in English, certain verbs interchanged the subject and object to express the same meaning, whereas in other languages, the cognate verbs did not experience such change. Examples:
- The English verbs 'like' and 'please' originally required the object before the subject, as French and Spanish still require. What might have caused the inversion in English?
Gustar algo a alquien literally translates to 'something likes, to someone'.
- English and Spanish verbs express longing from the subject's perspective, but French from the object's. What might explain this difference? For example:
Spanish: Echo de menos a algo/alquno.
French: Quelqu'un ou quelque chose me manque.