Re: Question on Géarthnuns grammar (sorta long)

From: "Matt Pearson"

> I'm not sure what your motivation is for giving these examples,
> since you provide no commentary.  They're not really relevant to
> the example I gave, since they're not double-object constructions.
> A double-object construction is one in which both the direct
> and indirect object are unmarked for case, or are marked with
> the same case.  In your Géarthnuns examples, the indirect object
> is marked with dative case and the direct object with accusative
> case.  The direct object is clearly not a chomeur in this type of
> construction.
A misunderstanding on my part.

> Now, what would *really* prove my case would be if
> Géarthnuns had an alternate ditransitive construction
> like this:
>
>    John-NOM  AUX  Bill-ACC  höi  book-ACC  give
>
> --in which there is no way to make "book-ACC" the subject of
> a passive sentence.  But I don't suppose there is any such
> construction...
You'd be correct here.

> >> The direct objects of nouns and gerunds are clearly chomeurs
> >> as well, since it's not possible to passivise nouns and gerunds.
> >
> >The eating of the ice cream was seen by me?
> >The ice cream's being eaten was seen by me?
>
> Can you form passive nominalisations in Géarthnuns?  If
> not, then these examples are irrelevant:  Direct objects of
> nominalised verbs weould be chomeurs in Géarthnuns but not
> in English.  (My guess is that you cannot form passivised
> nominalisations in Géarthnuns, since the passivisation
> operation is linked to the AUX system, and nominalisations
> don't include an auxiliary.  Am I right?)
At the risk of misunderstanding you again, I think so? Gerunds are formed by
taking the verb, reversing the auxiliary, and adding a suffix.

la glozh (eat)  =>  glozh + al + örs  =>  glozhalörs   eating

so:

lat glozh  (be eaten)  =>  glozh + tal + örs  =>  glozhtalörs  being eaten

Chau glozhtalörs cha fusumbansas lét sín tel.
the being.eaten-nom the ice.cream-gen past/pass I-instr see
The ice cream's being eaten was seen by me.

In theory, any aux+verb combo could be gerundized, though some forms are
obviously more commonly used than others.

Kou