Re: cases

Tom Wier wrote:

>> I agree, but I didn't invent the terminology!  :-)  That's the
>> terminology I've seen in every description of Romanian I've read.
>
>Well, then.  A thoughtful linguist would change it.
And divorce himself from the previous literature.  I don't think so.  Rarely
happens, even with the more rediculous names, such as the "classifiers" in
Navajo which don't classify anything, unergative verbs that have nothing to do
with ergativity - the list is long.  Consistent nomenclature is important for
communication.  IMHO changes should only be made when the current terminology
leads to confusion.  An inappropriate label for a case is not such a
situation.  It is, after all, only a label, and nothing important hangs on it.







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Marcus Smith
AIM:  Anaakoot
"When you lose a language, it's like
dropping a bomb on a museum."
  -- Kenneth Hale
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