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More verb terminology

From:Matt McLauchlin <matt_mcl@...>
Date:Friday, December 1, 2000, 7:44
Since you guys answered that one so fast, how about a more difficult one? :)

My verbs change meaning depending on what the case of the noun is. For
example:

ga ri ogat
it-NOM be-in room-LOC
"it is in the room"

gar ri ogat
it-AGT be-in room-LOC
"it puts (something) into the room"

gan ri ogat
it-PAT be-in room-LOC
"it goes into the room" or "it is caused to enter the room"

Now, my participles and infinitives need to distinguish between these
meanings. They use prefixes to do that. For example:

t'ri
NOM-be-in
"to be in"

k'ri
AGT-be-in
"to place in"

r'ri
PAT-be-in
"to go in"

What should I call these prefixes? Is there a name for "the quality of a
verb to change its meaning depending on the case of associated nouns"?

Matt McLauchlin
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
English/français/esperanto/español
http://www.crosswinds.net/~montrealais

"Two plus two doesn't necessarily get you the truth... The living bird is
not its labelled bones."
-Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

----- Original Message -----
From: "Matt McLauchlin" <matt_mcl@...>
To: "Constructed Languages List" <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2000 12:29 AM
Subject: Verb terminology question


> My language has got three tenses (past, present, and future), each of
which
> is supplied with four aspects. Those are: simple/progressive, indefinite, > perfect, and... what? What is the correct term for an aspect indicating an > event which is about to or has yet to take place? > > Matt McLauchlin > Montreal, Quebec, Canada > English/français/esperanto/español > >