Re: Voices

Hi everyone, I'm back from Kiwiland.  =)


--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Steven Williams <feurieaux@Y...> wrote:

> Applicative voice:
> "The cat [ACT] (on)slept the mat [PAT]."
That sounds much like the productive German prefix be-, as
in:

Sie werfen Steine auf den Suender.
"They throw stones at the sinner."

Sie bewerfen den Suender mit Steinen.
"They bethrow the sinner with stones."

In the sleeping cat case, I'm afraid the prefix wouldn't be
applicable, since my old Latin dictionary gives "beschlafen"
as the translation of FUTUERE.  ;o)


In Obrenje, a similar distinction is made with the
directive case as opposed to the predicative case.  Many
verbs allow both cases as arguments:

|Tyv torav i nossa| {read:3e man:DEF DIR book}
"The man reads at a book", i.e. directs the action "read"
at the object "book".

|Tyv torav u nossa| {read:3e man:DEF PRE book}
"The man book-reads", i.e. performs the action of reading
a book.

The former would be used with a specific book in mind
("Where is my Locom Blues Episode #213 book?" -- "Zhandi
is reading at it.") whereas the latter uses "book" to
describe the verb action rather than its target ("Zhandi
is book-reading rather than newspaper-reading right now.")


-- Christian Thalmann

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