Re: Polysynthetic nouns

>
> Why do you call my conlang Old *Arabic*?  It is
> named Old *Albic*,
> and has nothing in particular to do with Arabic.
>
Sorry, i had Arabic on my brain at the time.

>
> But one thing I am actually considering is a kind of
> "construct
> state" in which the case and number marking on a
> possessed noun
> is dropped, as it is also present on the possessor
> by virtue of
> suffixaufnahme, as in the following example:
>
> (1) mbar  o-s-em-as    mbestiro-s-em-as
>     house M-GEN-PL-LOC baker-GEN-PL-LOC
>     `in the houses of the baker'
>
> which would mean the same as
>
> (2) mbar-em-as   o-s-em-as    mbestiro-s-em-as
>     house-PL-LOC M-GEN-PL-LOC baker-GEN-PL-LOC
>     `in the houses of the baker'
>
> But I am not sure about this.
>\Actually, this is similar to my suggestion below.
> >       I think that doing so combined with
> > suffixaufnahme could be turned into a kind of noun
> > incorporation simply by dropping any anaphoric or
> > contextually unnecessary items and slurring the
> whole
> > predicate into one utterance. The cognates would
> then
> > be reduced to reduplicatin of the verbal root, and
> the
> > morphemes the carried by virtue of suffixaufnahme
> > would become verbal infixes. I mention this,
> becase I
> > think that's the route i'll take in my conlang.
>
> Sorry, but I don't understand what you mean.  Could
> you please
> explain, and give some examples?
>
> Greetings,
>
> Jörg.
Assuming no split constituents so cognate
subject/objects occur right next to their verb
syntactically, with the cognate reiterating the NP
syntax through suffixaufnahme, one could drop any
pronominals from a phrase and let the "case shell"
stand as a set of linear verb prefixes sandwiched
between a reduplication of the verbal root.

Example:

X-acc. Y-acc.-obl. Z-acc.-obl.-gen VERB etc...

(X,Y-acc.)Y,Z-acc.-obl.)Z-acc.-obl.gen)

(Z)acc)obl)gen)-Verb

then reinterpret this as:

prefix1-prefix2-prefix3-ROOT-...

the first prefix slot may corespond to head noun in
some aggreement hierarchy, second one to a lower noun
on the hierarchy and so on.
                          Travis


	
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Friends.  Fun.  Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger.
http://messenger.yahoo.com/