Re: Predicate nominals in Piata (Andreas's Law of Freaks strikes again!)

Mike Ellis wrote:

> > So I thought, what if 'cow' got denominalized to 'to be a cow'?
> > I created the denominalizer _-chv_ (_v_ is /V/) and suddenly I
> > had the word _akachv_ 'to be a cow'.
> It's been a couple of years since I looked at any Turkish grammar, but I
> think they do something similar with -tir, which harmonises with the
> previous vowel. But I may not be remembering that right.
I'm sure you did. That kind of nominalization isn't uncommon at all
if I understand correctly. 'To be a cow', 'to become a cow', 'to have
a cow' (haha, that last one is to be taken literally and not in the
metaphorical sense :) are all pretty common.

> When you say EXACTLY that construction, do you mean right down to the
> prefixed person/patient? 'Cause that would be quite the anadew.
Not *exactly* exactly, but pretty much. Here's what Bella Coola
does (and note that the example also is about a chief!)

|     staltmx-aw  wa-?imlk
|     chief-INTR  PROX-man
|     'The man is a chief.'

So Bella Coola has an intransitive marker, and I have a general
denominalizer, but they work the same way, turning a noun into
a verb. The literal meaning is thus the same: "The man chiefs".

> > One more very weird thing happened to me today, which I have to tell
> > y'all about in a later mail.
> Yeah I've just read that; pretty wild!
I know! I can't wait til Tuesday when I meet her again. We're
gonna discuss her language Còní. She mailed me what she has on
her language on file, and I must say it isn't as bad as she told
me it was. (She's very humble.) The grammar is pretty European,
but the phonology is great! And the orthography! Yikes! She's
been very creative avoiding digraphs! Perhaps something for
Christophe to look closer at, and perhaps learn something? ;)

Daniel Andreasson