Re: Rethinking Nova's pronominals

At 19:27 14/04/00 -0600, you wrote:
>
>Thinking about that led me to sketch out a new pronoun system where
>person is replaced by presence (in the conversation) and where
>discursive is contrasted with direct address;
>
>Present Discursive=I, we
>Present Direct Address=thou, you
>Absent=he, she, it, they (will probably have available a derivational
>        morpheme indicating 'first reference' and '2nd reference'
similar to a
>proximate::obviative contrast).
>
>The result is a system that on the surface is similar to my old 1,2,3,4
>person system but is in fact is profoundly different.
>Syntax, already difficult to describe might become a real mess since
>'present direct address' could only be an actor with imperative
>type verbs.
>
>I VERB you
>O thou (probably usually with +focus)!  VERB-ing occurs I-active case
>
>You VERB me
>O thou!  VERB-ing occurs I-(as appropriate Passive, Receptive,
>Benefactive, Experiential case)
>
>There could in fact, be a single pronoun marked for presence vs.
>absence, discourse role, and reference but I think at least two
>forms is better.
>
I like this system. It reminds me of Japanese, which, if it doesn't
generally mark participants on the verb, except when using special very
polite forms which use different verbs ("auxiliaries") depending on whether
the participants are actually discussing (I, you) or not, and often
translatable as "O thou!", as deference towards the listener is the rule :) .

                                                Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"Reality is just another point of view."

homepage : http://rainbow.conlang.org
(ou : http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepages/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html)