Re: Tense marked on nouns

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark P. Line" <mark@...>

[skipping the three interesting examples]:

The discussion you give below is what I thought Peter was referring to.  I'm
inclined to agree with you.  Now that I think about it, Teonaht doesn't
really do this.

> Also, I don't think English marks tense on the subject as Peter suggests.
> I think that we have tense markers that sometimes realize as clitics,
> making it appear phonologically that the subject is being marked for tense
> when in fact the subject is just being followed by a clitic. That is, the
> subject is no more being marked for tense in
>
>      a. John's at work.
>
> than in
>
>      b. John is at work.
>
> -- Mark
The clitic in Teonaht is "detachable," but it reattaches remotely, not as a
process of contraction, and it has become such an entrenched feature in
Teonaht grammar that pronoun with prefixed tense/aspect/modal-clitic becomes
a verb phrase:

        nelry    "I was" (something).  TENSE
        uary    "I have" (completed something)  ASPECT
        nomry  "I often" (do or am something).  ASPECT
        eslo    "He will be" (something or doing something)  TENSE
        talon    "One can" (do something)  MODAL
        miply   "She begins" (doing something)  MODAL
        begfy    "You stop" (doing something)  MODAL

In some parts of Teonhea, they are adding imperative clitics to these
"verbs" that end with the pronoun:

        begfyf!  "Stop!"  (lit.: stop-you-IMP)
        miptsots, "Let's begin."

This of course confuses the imperative on the ordinary verb with the
imperative on the compound, making an alternate or "slang" expression.  Beg-
and mip- are really only modals that modify a verb, and there are ordinary
verbs for "stop" and "start" that have their own imperative suffixes:
kraika, "stop"; kraikaf!  "cease and desist!"  I think the slang use
indicates more a sense of "stop doing a specified action," so it requires an
antecedant.

So... no actual NOUNS that carry tense.  What an interesting idea.  Since
Teonaht is so fond of the "Law of Detachability," it's very possible that
tense clitics could detach and reattach to articles and determiners:  ele
tahdo teo, "PRET-the cat run."  Elal tahdo teo.  "My cat ran."  This feels
really crazy.  I think I prefer Le tahdo elo teo.  Ele tahdo teo. El-le
tahdo teo.  Hmmm.  Has kind of a ring to it.  It will have to express a
distinction in meaning from the other.  And then there is the old way: Le
tahdo teoel.  "The cat ran."  Could get gooey once we start adding
non-volitionality, aspect, etc.  Let the chips fall naturally; it all has to
be tested in usage.

Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/contents.html

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