Re: Required Arguments?

Joe wrote;

<< I was just thinking... what if you had nouns that required an argument?
The words "son" and "daughter" are almost like this in English. You usually
don't use the word "son" without saying "son of someone" or "someone's son".
Imagine a language that required an argument to go with "son" like this. >>

There are languages that do this. For example, in Arawak one cannot say just
*'khabo' "hand", because a hand belongs to someone/somebody. So you
can only use this word when it is known who's hand it is, like in 'da-khabo'
"my hand". If you really want to use just the word for hand, you have to add
a special suffix (-ho) to indicate the fact that it is alienated from it's owner.
So: 'aba khabo-ho'  "one hand."

More languages make a distinction between alienable and inalienable nouns.
The fun part is, that inalienable nouns are not limited to bodyparts, but are
extended to items like pots, weapons etc.
I incorporated this feature into my conlang because I liked it so much!

Rob