Re: Person marking on nouns?

Estel wrote:

<<snip>>

I don't understand why you sent a message whose body was "snip", but I'll try
to respond, anyway. ;) j/k

The examples you came up with for this person marking on nouns was rather
like trying to fit the system you described onto English.   You don't need to do
this.   If you had a created language that had person marking on nouns (let's
say...):

ma- = 1st
ka- = 2nd
0- = 3rd

(where 0- is a null   morpheme)

Then I would predict that that language would use this strategy a *lot*
more--so much so, that a noun with person marking might be used more often than a
pronoun.   So, let's take an everyday conversation:

"Hey, Mark."
"Hey, Jack."
"What do you want to do today?"
"I don't feel like doing anything right now."
"What's a matter with you?   Don't you want to have fun?"
"I'm having fun just sitting right here.   I don't need to go out to have
fun, like you."

Now let's add our person suffixes and shake things up a little bit:

"Hey, kaMark."
"Hey,kaJack."
"What does kamy-friend wnat to do today?
"Mathe-tired-one doesn't feel like doing anything right now."
"What's a matter with kathe-joykiller?   Doesn't kathe-boring-one want to
have fun?"
"Mathe-one-who-doesn't-want-to-be-bothered is having fun just sitting here.
Mathe-righteous-one doesn't to go out to have fun, like
kathe-ADD-afflicted-one."

Of course, it'd be up to the language to decide if all these things would
trigger 3rd person agreement, but that's the idea.   It'd add a lot more depth to
everday conversations.   And the literary possibilities are endless: A whole
novel contained in a single noun!   Anyway, there would probably be some very
common ones that came into use, and these would differ based on region, age
group, etc., but all the speakers of this language would probably still have the
ability to produce very long strings spontaneously, just like speakers of
Eskimo languages can spontaneously produce words that mean something like, "The
stupid drunk guy whom we hunted all those fat caribou with."

It's a good idea!   I may have to steal it one day.   ;)

-David

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