Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Question about anaphora

From:Rob Haden <magwich78@...>
Date:Thursday, June 5, 2003, 4:54
I was thinking of how to apply the anaphora problems mentioned to
OurTongue, and I think I've come up with a "solution":

OurTongue also lacks grammatical gender, having only one 3rd person pronoun
(sg. nom./acc. si/se, pl. seni/sen).  It also has two demonstratives,
o "this (near)" and ta "that (far)".  I thought of combining the
demonstratives with the 3rd person pronouns to eliminate some ambiguity:

osi/oseni literally "this-he", used as "himself" or emphasizing "the former"

tasi/taseni literally "that-he", used as "him (other)" or emphasizing "the
latter"

So, sentences like the following can be free (I think) of ambiguity:

Ereka ose anto.  "He wants him(self) to go."  (Lit. "That-he-go this-him he-
wants")

Ereka tase anto.  "He wants him (other) to go."  (Lit. "That-he-go that-him
he-wants")

Does this work well?

- Rob