Another clarification about Le usage

Question

Yo no le temo a la muerte.

As far as I understand, Le functions as a Direct Object pronoun in some areas of Spain - him. and functions as Indirect Object pronoun - to Him, to Her, to It.

I guess in this sentence it functions as IO? I don't fear to it?

Thanks Alon

Answer 1

Lazarus, I just found this, so I don't agree with you.

verbos cuyo régimen ha sido reinterpretado: avisar, obedecer, temer y amenaza

Otro grupo de verbos cuyo régimen ha sido reinterpretado: avisar, obedecer, temer y amenazar. Todos estos grupos de verbos presentan una característica común que quizá pueda aclarar por qué se sustituyó el dativo primitivo por el acusativo: la transitividad preposicional. «Algunos como ayudar a/en exigen categóricamente la preposición; otros, como obedecer (a), temer (a), avisar (de), enseñar (a), alternan el régimen preposicional con el directo para expresar su objeto inanimad

A ver...¿Lo malinterpreto?

Original address of link:

http://hispanoteca.eu/Gramáticas/Gramática española/Leísmo falso - Verbos con alternancia en el régimen.htm

no se fija el enlace...a ver si alguien sabe - 006595c6, Oct 5, 2017

A tus órdenes. :) - bosquederoble, Oct 5, 2017

jeje, genial, ni idea cómo lo has hecho - 006595c6, Oct 5, 2017

Answer 2

¡Yo no te temo, muerte!

DO

¿Ves? Yo no le temo a la muerte.

A la muerte, yo no le temo.

IO, I think, though it'd be a direct one in English

About América: San La Muerte.

Answer 3

"Le" here is being used as IO regardless of the country, and although it is also possible to refer to the death here using a DO, it is less frequent, especially in America.

Answer 4

Okay. I accept that “temer” requires an “a” when talking about an animated object, even death. Zombies come to mind. I believe we agree that “temer” requires a direct object. So why is the object pronoun “le” used with “muerte”, which is feminine? As far as I know, “le” is used as a DO pronoun only when the DO is masculine, and then only in some places. (i.e. “Yo le/lo vi”).

Yo no le temo a él. Yo no le temo a ella. IO pronoun. I said in my message above that I thought it was IO though it would be DO in English. - aleCcowaN, Oct 6, 2017

Answer 5

So to sum up, just to make sure I extracted the correct answer.... Temer demands the preposition "a" with animated objects, because of that le must be a DO..?

thanks you.

See my reply to DonBigote. - aleCcowaN, Oct 6, 2017

Answer 6

,I agree with you, Ale. It is a DO. Is it even possible in Spanish to have an IO without a DO? I don't think so, although I am not a native Spanish speaker.

Is "Temo la muerte." correct?

How about, "La temo"? "La" refers to "muerte". It sounds really strange, but I believe it to be grammatically correct.

"Temo la muerte" sounds a bit weird. "Temer" demands the preposition "a" with animated objects, and in some way humans tend to think of death as a prey animal. - aleCcowaN, Oct 6, 2017

Answer 7

I think so, if what you want to say is, “I don’t have a deathly fear of him”. But, in my mind, “le” is a direct object and can only mean “him”. (It can’t mean “her”). “No le temo”=”I don’t fear him.” “Deathly”(a la muerte) is only a modifier.

bigote, this is incorrect - 006595c6, Oct 5, 2017

temo la muerte, temo a la muerte, el significado es ligeramente diferente, pero en ambos casos es un complemento - 006595c6, Oct 5, 2017

You are correct. "Complemento"="object". "Le"= es object pronoun". Yo tenía los cables cruzados. - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Oct 5, 2017