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

From:Christopher Wright <faceloran@...>
Date:Wednesday, December 5, 2001, 23:24
>here are some of the examples my polish professor gave us: >'i write with a pen'... ok that works 'pen' is in the instrumental >case, but the next example is: 'i am a student'... huh? what? >wouldn't both 'i' and 'student' be nominative?
You are a student, but *you* are doing the action--being--and *student* is receiving it. Whatever does the action is nominative, and whatever receives it is accusative. No, I don't have it wrong for passive sentences. For instance, "I was crushed by the car." I'm doing the action--being crushed--and the car is in the instrumental case. Hey, I might not know the fancy notation, but I know a lot more about the workings of language than some of you do. I'm fresh into high school; I haven't had an opportunity to forget. For instance, all of you had a discussion about linking verbs and whether their adjectival objects were adjectives or adverbs. They're adjectives, by the way, because in most languages you can remove the copula (isn't that what "to be" is called?) and still be understood. "The rag bloody" could be understood, even in English, though it isn't proper; in Chinese (I think), it is proper. Just have to learn one more language, about sixty symbols.... Christopher Wright Bow before royalty, you insolent wretches! Ta torof turo, lu nuanu navenred! Ta (imp. part.) torul (bow 2pl near fut) turo (royal [one]; dative understood), lu (y'all) nuanu (insolent) navenred (lit. "robbed widows")!

Replies

Tristan Alexander McLeay <anstouh@...>
Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
Muke Tever <alrivera@...>
nicole dobrowolski <fuzzybluemonkeys@...>