Re: Genitive Relationships again

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)