Re: Relatives, interrogatives and other such particles

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