Re: minimalistic grammar

In a message dated 04/7/02 7:31:57 PM, Karapcik@MOFFITT.USF.EDU writes:

<< The sentence order is VOS. A word's "type" is largely dependent on where
in the sentence is is placed, and also if it has a leader. Descriptors
follow the word they describe. >>

    VSO, I'm sure you meant.  He, what book do you have?  I don't have a good
one.
    Anyway, maybe by grammar you mean syntax...?  Even so, take a normal
sentence, like "He hele au i ke kula", "I go to school" (VSO), vs. "He kane
au", "I am a man" (OS?).
    Also, there's the matter of loa'a verbs that are inherently passive and
that you add a causative prefix to to make active.  Compare:

Pau ka hana iaia.  (The work was finished by him.)
Ho'opau 'oia ka hana.  (He finished the work--ho'o is the causative.)

    The causative prefix itself isn't always intuitive, either, sometimes
creating a causative word, sometimes not.  Reduplication also isn't
straightforward.
    Point is, I don't think you could describe Hawaiian with 16 rules, let
alone 8 or 7 or 2.

-David

"fawiT, Gug&g, tSagZil-a-Gariz, waj min DidZejsat wazid..."
"Soft, driven, slow and mad, like some new language..."
                    -Jim Morrison