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Re: Genitive Relationships again

From:John Cowan <cowan@...>
Date:Monday, March 15, 1999, 15:32
Sally Caves scripsit:

> What if it was taken to the nth degree, and EVERY > noun that described something capable of being possessed > had a different word for it: My book, but your scroll, his > tome.
There is a genre of jokes which claims that English inflects adjectives for person (by suppletion), thus: I am firm, you are stubborn, he is pig-headed. There is a related genre that inflects them for gender as well, but I will spare us all the examples.
> Getting back to whoever it was who suggested the > two sets of pronoun systems, one that was neutral > and the other that conferred violence upon the verb... > I really like that!
The Taelon language (from _Earth: The Final Conflict_ on U.S. TV) uses the same sentences for radically opposed notions: notoriously, "We come in peace" and "We come in anger" sound the same. -- John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.org You tollerday donsk? N. You tolkatiff scowegian? Nn. You spigotty anglease? Nnn. You phonio saxo? Nnnn. Clear all so! 'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)