Re: 2nd person inanimate

From: "Jim Grossmann" <jimg4732@COMCAST.NET <mailto:jimg4732@...>>
Sent: Friday, June 18, 2004 8:08 AM
Subject: 2nd person inanimate


 > Hello,
 >
 > I like the idea of distinct grammatical marking for 2nd person inanimate.
 >
 > People with an animistic world view might have frequent occasion to
use it,
 > especially if they also believed that they could influence the
behavior of
 > inanimate things, like weather and germs, by talking to them. Talking to
 > images of deities might be a common usage analogous to your "talking to
 > paper" example;  the speaker talks to an image in order to send a
prayer to
 > the deity it depicts. [ snip ]

What you wrote is quite interesting. In fact, the Ayeri are thought to
be a people that lives in the rainforests of my conworld Aréqa, similar
to the Maya or Aztecs.

I must think about whether having a 2nd person inanimate or not,
depending on the point of view. Because my point of view is rather
logical oriented regarding grammar, like Jörg's, I would not keep this
distinction. As I said, what you wrote is nevertheless interesting, so I
might consider to do keep up the distinction in the 2nd person.
Difficult ...

--Carsten