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Re: Relatives, interrogatives and other such particles

From:Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...>
Date:Sunday, April 23, 2006, 3:11
On 4/21/06, Larry Sulky <larrysulky@...> wrote:
> On 4/21/06, Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...> wrote: > ---SNIP--- > > This makes it tricky to ask things like > > "Do you have any cats?" -- the most straightforward way would > > be ambiguous with "Which cats do you have?" This is > > probably too confusing and I may well drop it. Or maybe there > > is an alternate word for "some/any" that is used only in > > questions...? Or a circumlocution like "one or more"? > > Wouldn't you just say "Do you have cats?"
Yes, that would make sense. And other potential ambiguities would be things like ftu sed'u zhonh'i shti shpa sinh ghe? Q know-V.INTR person-ABS INDEF/Q.WH FOC thing 3.DEM Who knows about that? ~ Does anyone know about that? ftu zub'u zhonh'o ghe fo fan shti? Q go-V.INTR person-ERG 3.DEM to place INDEF/Q.WH Where did he go? ~ Did he go anywhere? I can live with that, I think, at least for now. I'll try it out for a while. Thanks to all the others who supplied examples from Japanese, German, Shoshoni and so forth. -- Jim Henry http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/conlang.htm