Re: Marking nouns with person?

Kate Sherwood wrote:
> I think that Nahuatl marks person on nouns similarly: third person is
> zero, and second and third person are marked. The noun and verb have
> to agree in person. I think that a noun with a person marker would be
> a complete sentence meaning "I am/You are/He is .... ", rather than a
> possessive ("My/Your/His").
>
> Unfortunately, I don't own the Nahuatl grammar I read this in, so I
> can't be more detailed. And I might be a little off since it's been
> awhile. =)
I've argued that these subject markers in Nahuatl -- at least in
modern spoken Nahuatl -- are actually clitics, and therefore it's
inappropriate to say that they are marking person on the noun.
Launey, to be sure, thinks otherwise, but I think most linguists
would think that his omnipredicativity hypothesis is wrong.

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Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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