Re: case problems

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 16:10:11 -0500, Robert Jung <RobertMJung@...>
wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I have a problem. I'm creating a conlang without any verbs or adjectives -
>
> just nouns and case suffixes.
And, it appears, copula.

> I've got a problem with this sentence: 'I-NOM give him-DAT the book-ACC'.
> In my lang, I've got: 'The book is a gift from me to him'. I've got 'me'
> as agent in the elative case ('from' - is that right?), and 'him' in the
> dative case ('to') - but I've been thinking 'him' should be in dative and
> some other case meaning 'toward', too.
Allative. From _A Dictionary Of Grammatical Terms In Linguistics_, by Larry
Trask:

allative /'&l@tIv/ n. or adj. A case form which typically indicates the
goal of motion: Basque |etxera| 'to the house' (|etxe| 'house').

While I've got it to hand...

elative /'i:l@tIv/ n. or adj. A case form, occuring in certain languages,
typically used to express the notion '(motion) out of': Finnish |talosta|
'out of the house' (|talo| 'house').

If you're extending elative to mean "origin of motion", you could easily
extend illative to mean "target of motion",

illative /'Il@tIv/ n. or adj. A case form typically expressing the notion
of '(motion) into': Finnish |taloon| 'into the house' (|talo| 'house').

The short answer? I have no idea how best to handle this. AFMCL, Thagojian
collapsed dative and allative together when I found myself using them
irregularly for eachother. It's a handy distinction to have, though,
letting you separately mark the recipient and benefactive without
periphrasis.




Paul