Re: Short random brain dump on possesives

On Tue, 5 Dec 2006 14:43:47 -0800, Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> wrote:

>Just a short random brain dump:
>
> While looking back on one of my older languages Tazhu, I was reminded
> that I'm not happy with the way possesives are handled. It occured to me,
> while deciding what to do about them, that possesives could be treated
> like adjectives as follows:
>
>The "English" way:
>I see the blue book.
>I see John's book. (or) I see the book that belongs to John.
>I see the blue book that belongs to John.
>Please bring me my blue book that is on the shelf.
>
>The "Adjective" way:
>I see the blue book.
>I see the belongs-to-John book.
>I see the blue, belongs-to-John book.
>Please bring me the belongs-to-me, blue, on-the-shelf book.
>(Please bring me the mewn, blue, shelvon book.)
>
>--gary
>=========================================================================
Another way of doing possessives that I've used is to define the possessed
noun as being divalent. Then the possessor takes the genitive form (or
whatever form is used by the object of a noun). I've done this mainly with
kinship terms, body parts, and relational words, such as on_top_of.

Jeff