Re: Plurality
From: | Christopher Wright <faceloran@...> |
Date: | Thursday, April 17, 2003, 13:33 |
H.S. Teoh wrote:
>An interesting thought occurred to me today. I've noticed that in
>languages that mark number on the verb, the number agrees with the number
>of the subject/agent. But has anyone thought about marking the number of
>the *object* on the verb instead? How possible is it to have the verb
>agree with the subject on person, but agree with the *object* on number?
Well, my Wirthans' (I hate this ASCII transliteration; s-cedilla is much
nicer than s') has verbs agree with the essive[1] noun if possible, since
the originative can be used as an ablative[2] as well as a sort of
subject. Of course, the essive can be a destination as well as the
recipient of the action, but the genitive is also used according to
strange and mysterious Circumstances, so it's less likely that there will
be that sort of trouble. Anyway, they don't much care if they say "To the
store I goes".
~Wright
[1] Will someone please tell me if this is the right word for a "to" case?
[2] This isn't the right word, I think. Ablative is "from the direction
of", and I want "starting at this point".
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