Re: Implied prepositions

Gary wrote:
<<
It occured to me that a conlang could almost be made
preposition-free if the verbs absorbed the role
usually played by prepositions. For example, in
English we can say "go into" or we can say "enter"
which has a built-in, or implied prepositional
meaning. Likewise "go out of" can be "exit", or
"leave" and "go after" can be "pursue".
 >>

Zhyler's postposition free, thanks in large part to case, but it
also has lots of verbs that build in prepositions.

Really, though, this is not at all uncommon in natural languages.
I'm not familiar with the exact data, but I'm pretty sure this is
what's done with Hungarian preverbs.  Also there are plenty
of, for lack of a better term, Amerind languages with directional
prefixes that attach to motion verbs.  Epiq has a series of these.
Also, things like this:

<<
It seems like it belongs
attached to the sentence as a whole. "He is throwing
rocks (while at the park)." vs "Rocks, he is
throwing-at the park."
 >>

Are achieved in many languages with applicatives:

Made-up Example:

Ma koma sotur na sima.
/I-NOM. eat fruit-ACC. at park/
"I eat fruit at the park."

Ma komas simar.
/I-Nom. eat-APPL. park-ACC./
"I eat at the park."  or  "I at-eat the park."

The only difference between natural languages and the
idea you presented is that no natlang does away entirely
with adpositions.  Just about any natlang could very easily do so,
though, if it felt like it.

-David
*******************************************************************
"sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

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