Re: Implied prepositions

On 7/19/06, Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> wrote:
> It occured to me that a conlang could almost be made
> preposition-free if the verbs absorbed the role
> usually played by prepositions.
Or if you used a couple dozen cases which are obligatorily marked on
(pro)nouns :)

> What would be a sensible word order if verbs all
> contained implied prepositions? "He gave-to Mary the
> book." "The book he gave-to Mary." "He book gave-to
> Mary." "Gave-to he book Mary."
If you have cases, then there needn't be any prepositions here :) For
example, in German, the three NPs are nom, dat, acc, and can occur in
more than one order -- especially if you use pronouns, which are more
case-marked, or if you add a definite article to the proper noun
(which happens in dialects), again for case-marking.

Er gab der Maria das Buch
Das Buch gab er der Maria
Der Maria gab er das Buch
Er gab das Buch der Maria

but not (for me)
*Das Buch gab der Maria er
*Das Buch der Maria gab er
*Er das Buch der Maria gab
etc.

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

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