Re: "To Be" In Silindion, Observations

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