Re: isolation vs inflection & other features

At 20:26 26/04/02, Kala Tunu wrote:
>i don't think you're vain or wrong--but maybe you're too impatient. you
>may read
>books on general linguistics not necessarily to learn linguistics but to learn
>the linguistic vocabulary in order to avoid misunderstanding with other people
>on this list when discussing this kind of issue. communication means using a
>common vocabulary. people here understand the difference between core and
>surface cases very well--yet provided that you speak their own tongue.
When I said I didn't read books I meant those boring books from university
linguists. I do conlanging as a pass-time, so I want to keep it funny. But
I know a lot of the conlang vocabulary. I have read the 'reference grammar'
and the 'level 0' tutorials on Lojban, plus the whole 'lexical semantics'
by Rick Morneau and still continue to read the Katanda lessons. Plus
reviews of several other conlangs. Plus I have read the archives of years
'92 and '93 of this list.

The mistake I may have done was to use the word 'genitive' for a definition
different from its original meaning. Even through I gave you the new
definition, it seems to leads to confusion. In Latin, genitive (gen: give
birth to) was used for what we now call possessive and adjective. Since I
implemented these two cases in my conlang, I thought I could use the word
genitive with the meaning 'generic case' to refer to unmarked cases.

So I will change my descriptions. All cases will be definite, but there
will be two ways of using them. When some conditions will be met, case can
be unmarked. Otherwise, case marking is mandatory.

> >>>
>Case can be marked by a preposition, an affixe or a postposition. Sometimes
>word order can be used to ellipsis these 'spoken' markers. As for Khmer, if
>serial verbs are of the kind 'is the owner' then sure I would consider it a
>preposition for the possessive case.
><<<
>ok, so i can see you're writing about "semantic" cases, which we often call
>"roles" here.
I'm not sure the word 'role' is as used as you pretend in the conlang
world. Even less in this list. However, I understand what you mean.


------ ebera

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