Re: OT: sorta OT: cases: please help...

En réponse à Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...>:

> >
> What about the French "l'État, c'est moi," where "moi" (accusative?)
> is
> distinct from the more usual "je" (nominative?)?  Je ne me souviens
> pas
> bien les détails de la grammaire française; pouvons-vous m'expliquer
> la
> situation pour(?) votre langue, Christohpe?  [I don't remember details
> of
> French grammar well; could you explain the situation for your
> language,
> Christophe?--Sorry, just had to get in my bit of French practice.]
If "je" is indeed nominative (in fact it's a clitic, despite written as an
independent word, it cannot appear far from a verb - and absolutely not without
a verb - and especially not with preposition), its accusative/dative equivalent
is "me", which has the same status as "je": clitic. The independent form "moi",
like normal nouns and all pronouns besides the personal pronouns, doesn't mark
case. And indeed, it can be used with prepositions, but also as subject ("moi,
je viens. Et toi?") or as direct object ("moi, il m'embête" in which the use
of "moi" is strangely reminiscent of the topic particle "wa" of Japanese :)) ).
As you see, the subject and object clitics are still used, proving their status
as clitics which are part of the conjugation system, rather than independent
words.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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