Re: Adjectives, Particles, and This ( etc ), and Conjunctions...
| From: | jesse stephen bangs <jaspax@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, January 18, 2001, 0:58 |
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Yoon Ha Lee sikayal:
> On Wed, 17 Jan 2001, H. S. Teoh wrote:
>
> > It seems that most languages have only two distictions. Three-way
> > distinctions such as in Greek seem to be more rare. Are there any natlangs
> > with only one demonstrative? Just curious :-)
>
> Korean has a three-way distinction (near the listener, near the speaker,
> distant from both). And _Pacific Languages_ talks about languages with
> multiple distinctions, apparently including some languages that make
> distinctions between vertical and horizontal distances being considered,
> or did I read that somewhere else?
I haven't heard of it, but I'd beleive it. ObConlang, Yivríndil
expresses, "the, this, some, any, the same" with a parallel set of
prefixes, so it could be said to have a 5-way distinction!
> Just curious myself, but how would you tell a one-way demonstrative from
> a (definite?) article? :-p
I wouldn't, at least.
>
> YHL
>
Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
"It is of the new things that men tire--of fashions and proposals and
improvements and change. It is the old things that startle and
intoxicate. It is the old things that are young."
-G.K. Chesterton _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_