Re: articles
| From: | B. Garcia <madyaas@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, February 1, 2005, 20:36 |
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On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 20:16:54 +0100, Carsten Becker
<naranoieati@...> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
> Poster: Carsten Becker <naranoieati@...>
> Subject: Re: articles
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Monday 31 January 2005 10:03, B. Garcia wrote:
>
> > It seems the trigger marking particles in Tagalog get
> > mistakenly called articles in translation:
> >
> > Ang bahay - the house
> > Ng bahay - a house
>
> I've already wondered about this. IIRC, _ang_ indicates the
> following argument being the agent and _ng_ indicates that
> it's a patient. But what happens if you've got an
> indefinite amount that is the agent resp. a definite amount
> that is the patient?
>
> Carsten
>
It's not a simple matter it seems. Kristian may be able to clarify as
IANA Tagalog speaker, but i had always been told in classes that no,
ang and ng are not articles, nor should they be treated as such.
It seems though that the object focus/triggers can mark definiteness,
and the actor focus/triggers would imply indefiniteness. However, i'm
assuming that this isn't always the case.
My guess is if someone needed to know what was being talked about
specifically, a listener would ask "what one?" and the speaker would
respond.
Kristian, since you seem to be better versed, can you explain?
--
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but there's nothing that'll keep me here you know
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