I've just realized that Germanic (in this case English and German) and Slavic languages make a useful distinction between to believe somebody and to believe in somebody, a concept that is blurred in most Romance languages and which requires further context to be elucidated. This is due to Latin, which required the dative for both to believe someone and to believe in someone. In Spanish, for example, one sometimes says No creo en las brujas, pero que las hay, las hay (I don't believe (in) witches, but they do exist), a sentence that plays with the two meanings of creer: to believe someone or to believe in someone. What also struck me is that the languages I'm acquainted with that have cases use the dative to mean to believe someone and the accusative after the equivalent of in to signify to believe in someone:
Czech: věřit v Boha
Polish: wierzyć w Boga
Russian: верить в Бога (verit' v Boga)
German: an Gott glauben
English: to believe in God
Czech: věřit učiteli
Polish: wierzyć nauczycielowi
Russian: верить учителю (verit' uchitelyu)
German: dem Lehrer glauben
English: to believe the teacher
2 comments:
I am wondering if Latin does not have another construction for the verb credere.
E.g., credo in unum Deum.
This to me is
Japanese, by the way, hardly distinguishes between "having trust in someone" and "accept the existence of someone." 人を信じる means believe someone but 神を信じる is believe the existence of G-d. This depends on the context and extra-linguistic knowledge (e.g., the existence of G-d is not a conviction shared by all humans).
Yes, the construction with in + accusative is indeed possible in Latin, as can be seen in http://www.webpersonal.net/diesdomini/frames/paraulallati.html
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