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Re: "To Be" In Silindion, Observations

From:Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
Date:Sunday, January 2, 2005, 23:25
Hi!

I followed this thread with interest, because Qthen|gai has some case
and aspect constructions that use the same nomenclature as the copulas
in Silindion.  And the implemented meanings are indeed closely
related.

Elliott Lash <erelion12@...> writes:
>... > > So the essive verb means `there is a ...', the > > existential verb, > > `... exists'? I see. > > > > Hm, no. I may have described it badly. What I meant > was that the essive verb means "it is the" or "it is > DEF X". The existential verb means "there is a" (most > commonly) or "X exists".
This is interesting: Qthen|gai has an essive case and an existential (I usually call it manifestatial) aspect, which lead to very similar constructions: Qthen|gai does not distinguish nouns and verbs syntactically, but when you use the manifestatial aspect with an entity, it become a verbal concept translated as 'there is X'. E.g. 'person' + MANIF. = "there is a person" or as an infinitive "for a person to exist", so you can also get sentences like "I am a person" from it, simply by changing the valence and adding a patient. OTOH, the essive is the notional 'locative': meaning 'in' the same state as... Something in essive case would usually be translated as 'as X' from Qthen|gai. Very similar concepts in Silindion and Qthen|gai, but totally different application in the languages, even each one in different categories. I like this. :-)
> > > coming!" > > > > id voron-ya-i enke-ari i-fil-da > > > > behold victor-pl.-ess. war-gen. > > > conj.-come-ger. > > > > (literally: "Behold, it is the victors of the > war > > > > coming") > > > > > > > > The form of the essive is "-i" attached to a > noun.
Well this plain sentence would be translated without essive case in Qthen|gai, the basic structure being: come war-GEN victor-AGT. Maybe with some additional aspect ending on 'come'. But a sentence like 'They are coming as the victor/victors of the war' would be: come war-GEN victor-ESS they. I currently have no means of droping 'they' in this situation, but if I had (which is not really unlikely, since Qthen|gai is pro-drop), this would become a sentence very similar to yours.
> >> existential verb were used: > >> > >> id më voronya enkëari ihwilda > >> "Behold, there are victors of war coming" > >> > >> the meaning of the sentence changes somewhat.
Qthen|gai structure: come-MANIF war-GEN victor-AGT. 'There is a coming of victors of war.' A sentence in manifestatial (existential) aspect. I never thought about implied definedness in my language, yet. Definedness, as I just said, is implied, not implicit, and there is currently no research going on about this topic. :-) **Henrik