Mathias's message

        Mathias currently has problems and cannot send posts to the conlang list,
so he asked me to send it. So here it is.


>"
>
>  <pine.3.89.9902051156.a80288-010000-@...> wrote:
>Original Article: http://www.egroups.com/list/conlang/?start=20904
>> Inspired by yesterday's back-and-forth with Nik Taylor about antipassives
>> in Watya'i'sa (sp?), I have decided to add an antipassive construction
>> to Tokana.  (It makes sense, given that Tokana is supposed to be an
>> ergative language.)  In the process, I have dropped some other features
>> of the language, and changed my understanding of absolutive arguments
>> in Tokana.  So here's the state of the art:
>>
>> In Tokana, agentive subjects are ergative while objects and non-agentive
>> subjects are generally absolutive (abstracting away from those verbs
>> which idiosyncratically assign dative case to their subject or object):
>>
>>         Ani     kahte-ke
>>         she:Erg hit-you:Abs
>>         "she hit you"
>>
>>         Ani     hostane
>>         she:Erg danced
>>         "she danced"
>>
>why not abs. nai hostane ? Is it because of a distinction from intransitivity
>?
>
>>         Nai     tioke
>>         she:Abs died
>>         "she died"
>>
>
>snip
>
>
>> When the verb is in the antipassive, the direct object may be
>> added back in as an optional dative case argument.  Thus we get
>> alternations like the following:
>>
>
>Very naturalistic. I've read once that's how some ergative languages may have
>'found out' accusative through antipassive.
>
>>         Na      Tsion tiespe-h      katia
>>         the:Erg John  built-the:Abs house
>>         "John built the house"
>>
>>         Ne      Tsion u-tiespe
>>         the:Abs John  Antipass-built
>>         "John built (something)"
>>         or "John did some building"
>>
>>         Ne      Tsion u-tiespe-i             katia-i
>>         the:Abs John  Antipass-built-the:Dat house-Dat
>>         "John did some building on the house"
>>
>> The antipassive construction is used in a number of contexts.  For
>> example, if the direct object is not affected (in the usual way) by
>> the action, then it will normally appear in the dative case with
>> the verb in the antipassive:
>>
>>         Na      Tsion kahte-m
>>         the:Erg John  hit-me:Abs
>>         "John hit me"
>>
>>         Ne      Tsion u-kahte-ma
>>         the:Abs John  Antipass-hit-me:Dat
>>         "John did some hitting at me"
>>
>> The second sentence might be used if John took a swing at me and
>> missed, or if John hit me but it had no effect on me (e.g. I just
>> ignored it).
>>
>
>very Spanish:-)
>
>> The antipassive is also used if the direct object is only partially
>> affected by the action.  Compare:
>>
>>         Na      Tsion tiespe-h      katia
>>         the:Erg John  built-the:Abs house
>>         "John built the house"
>>
>>         Ne      Tsion u-tiespe-i             katia-i
>>         the:Abs John  Antipass-built-the:Dat house-Dat
>>         "John did some building on the house"
>>         or "John built part of the house"
>>
>> The antipassive construction can also be used to indicate imperfective
>> (or progressive) aspect.  Since "John is building the house" entails
>> "John has built part of the house", the semantic extension from partial
>> affectedness of the object to progressive aspect seems natural to me
>> (and has precedents in other languages):
>>
>
>This nicely resumes acting, aspect and volition.
>
>>         Ne      Tsion u-tiespe       katia-i
>>         the:Abs John  Antipass-built house-Dat
>>         "John is/was building a house"
>>         or "John is/was building houses"
>>
>> Notice that this use of the antipassive can be translated using the
>> present progressive ("is building") or the past progressive ("was
>> building").  To disambiguate in favour of the present progressive
>> interpretation, the adverbial "kas" = "already, as of now" may be
>> added:
>>
>>         Ne      Tsion kas       u-tiespe       katia-i
>>         the:Abs John  as:of:now Antipass-built house-Dat
>>         "John is building a house/houses (now)"
>>
>> This last sentence could be more accurately translated "As of
>> now, John has partially built a house", which, under normal
>> circumstances, could be taken to imply that he is building the house
>> now.
>>
>
>snip
>
>
>>
>> What do people think?
>>
>
>Very impressive. More personally, I like the link with aspect.
>I also have something like a 'finitive' tag, that is, a tag pointing the
agent
>playing the role of one of the usual results of the action (cases equate
>voices) :
>
>see a-me e-house : I look the house.
>see e-house a-me : the house is looked at by me.
>see a-me o-house : I see the house (house is the image).
>see o-house a-me : the house appears to me.
>
>offer a-me e-you o-food : I offer you food. (food is the gift).
>
>cut a-me e-bread o-slice : I cut bread into slices
>cut o-slice e-bread a-me : slice is cut from the bread by me
>
>> Matt.
>
>Mathias
>
>
                                                        Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"Reality is just another point of view."

homepage : http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepage/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html