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Re: Classification and 'to be'

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Monday, September 28, 1998, 1:23
/Joe Mondello wrote:
> le can gen le bet > the dog is [a member of the category] animal > > but > > le bet spes can > the animal is [has as a subcategory] dog
Do you mean "that specific animal is a dog"? If so, W. makes a similar distinction. There are four ways of indicating "to be". 1. Copula: verbal form of an adjective, using the prefix sa-, thus: NaTya'n satika'tas (tika' = old) John is old. 2. Location: The verb _launi'_, originally meaning "to stay", and probably related to the stative prefix li- NaTya'n launi'tas sani'madh John is at his home. 3. Equative: The verbal particle kla- (ta-), indicates that A and B refer to the same thing. TiWani^ta klananani'ma Juanita is his mother. (i.e., Juanita = his mother) 4. Token: The verbal particle yan- or na-, indicates that A is a member of the group B. NaTya'n yannakyu^man John is a human. (i.e., John is a member of the group "human") -- If God had meant for us to use the metric system, there would've been 10 disciples - anonymous http://www.crosswinds.net/orlando/~nik/ ICQ #: 18656696 AOL screen-name: NikTailor