Re: OT: Corpses, etc. (was: Re: Gender in conlangs (was: Re: Umlauts (was Re: Elves and Ill Bethisad)))

> > I can verify that Danish definitely doesn't do anything of the sort.  I
> > thought that using plural adjectives to agree with singular definate nouns
> > (which I can see from your example below is also done in Swedish) was kinda
> > strange, but using both markers for definiteness might beat that for
> > strangeness, or perhaps not - it's no worse than what you have to go
> > through in French to negate something.
>
>You think of it as a pl adjective? Sure it could be by form, but I would never
>think of it like that.
"Plural" was really the only reference frame that I had for it, since the
forms matched.  Or it might have been that someone actually taught it to me
in a way that made me think of it as a plural adjective.  It's been over
thirteen years since I learned adjective agreement in Danish, so I don't
remember.

I'm not certain whether I do or don't really think of it a a plural
adjective.  I certainly did when I first learned it.  I also certainly know
that I need to tack an -e onto the end of any adjective in a definite noun
phrase, and I do it by reflex without thinking too much about it when I'm
actually doing it.

>Perhaps I can convince you of the faultcy of your analysis by pointing out
>that while you indeed get the same form of the adj in _den stora bilen_ "the
>big car" and _de stora bilarna_ "the big cars", you don't in _den store
>mannen_ "the big man" and _de stora männen_ "the big men"?
In Danish (someone correct me if I'm wrong) it's "den store bil" and "de
store biler" and also "den store mand" and "de store mænd."  If I had
learned Swedish instead of Danish, perhaps I would have perceived it
differently than as a plural adjective.  Why is it "stora" instead of
"store" in the latter case but not the former?  I don't recognize the form
ending in -a; Danish doesn't have that one.

Isidora

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