Re: OT: CHAT/OT: source/goal survey

On 10 Sept, Daniel Andreasson wrote:
<snip>

>We've found our
>informants by talking to friends and asked the language
>institutions at uni. We're quite proud of ourselves. :)
    As you should be! I still remember the difficulties of
scrounging up informants for my linguistics assignments!

<snip>

>I do hope that this doesn't fall under the category "Do
>your own homework!". If it does, please feel free to
>yell all you can at me. :)
Not _me_! I've yelled enough about "doing your
homework" with my own kids over the years!
I'm all yelled out! ;-)

>ObConlang: I have to make it somewhat on-topic. :)
>How do you express source and goal in your respective
>conlangs?
In rtemmu, there are "direction markers":
fai = away from
fo  = towards
fu  = mutuality (or something that goes
                        both toward and away from)

There are also:

g~ai = no reaction emanating from (g~ = /N/ )
g~o = no reaction incoming
g~u = totally neutral

There are two ways of using the markers:

1. They may be prefixed to a word to convey
     direction relative to that word:

"inakehs duhl zuv fog~guhk.  [fo-g~guhk]"

He goes to the rock.

Or more literally: he to-rock-y
 (to-rock is a single observation,
 to be added to what we already know about
"he" )

(duhl = 3rd pers. singular;
 fo-g~guhk = towards-rock;
 zuv, because the rock doen't seem to change )

OTOH,

" inakehs foduhl kehs g~guhk"

the rock is coming to him. (maybe somebody
threw it at him or maybe somebody mailed it to him)
More literally: to-himness is rocky

(kehs, because the rock is changing, even if only its
position;
 fo-duhl = towards-3rd pers sing)

In rtemmu, the first content word is the topic of the
sentence, and all subsequent content words modify
that topic. Whether one puts the direction marker on
the topic or some later word is a matter of emphasis.
    More than one direction marker can be in the
same sentence. Thus to-where and from-where
can both be specified. One may be the topic or
neither may be the topic.

The above applies to all the direction markers.

2. The direction marker can take the suffix: "-he"
= "with respect to", and be positioned before
the rate marker wich precedes the
content  word. This places emphasis on the
direction. For example:

"inakehs duhl  fohe zuv g~guhk."

He goes _to_ the rock.

" ina fohe  kehs duhl kehs g~guhk"

_Toward_ him is the rock.


Dan Sulani

--------------------------------------------------------------------
likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.