Charles wrote :
> If yours actually already works, it is ahead of mine.
It doesn't because I never learned the vocabulary !
> I see that DEL has 4 basic verb voices, similar to my TOM.
http://www.catty.com/~catty/lang/tomato.htm (out-dated).
>
A very good job is that one ! Outdated ? Now updating, it seems. Where are TOM's
voices ? Can't find them. DEL has no passive but an *antipassive* and TOM looks
like that since *femo vadu* seems to mean *the girl attracts* rather than *the
girl is gone to by*.
I think it's difficult to cram a factitive voice in TOM's verbs because it would
break the nice bipolar arrangement so I suggest :
*viro faciu meso vadu femo*
*femo vadi meso facui viro*
But this does not allow a straight deriving like would be :
active : to see >< to appear : (anti)passive
active factitive : to show >< to display : passive factitive
for that you need a third argument and this would impair TOM's symetry.
For subclauses (not adjectives) I suggest *o* as 'the latter' :
*viro, o faciu femo vadi meso*
*femo, viro faciu o vadi meso*
*meso, femo vadi o facui viro*
etc. etc.
This is one of its relative-clause and preposition
> avoidance techniques (there are many):
>
> market go I buy flour
> merako vadu meso haceti farino
>
I never dared do that. I surrendered and made inserted subclauses.
> TOM also has a "stative" form adding the adjectival
> ending "-a" to the verb "-i" (active) and "-u" (passive)
> endings to make "-au" and "-ai" as in:
>
> saqkola luno ... luno saqkolau ... saqkolai luno
> ruddy moon ..... moon is ruddy ... ruddy is the moon
>
*stative* is a kind of verb to me, while *adjective* is a degree of integration more
than subclause and less than compound word.
> But true causatives would require serial verbs.
> I suppose a "causative stative" would be possible
> during a lunar eclipse:
>
> luno saqkolau suno ... suno saqkolai luno
> moon is reddened by sun ... sun blood-colors moon
>
>
that would mix 'active' and 'factitive'. It's ok with intransitive verbs like TOM's
'statives', but what if you have a factitive of a transitive verb with already
2 arguments like 'femo vadi meso' ?
Mathias
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