Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Noun system idea

From:Peter Bleackley <peter.bleackley@...>
Date:Thursday, August 7, 2003, 9:09
I've had an idea for a noun system where each gender has an associated
grammatical role.
Active nouns are those that are naturally the subjects of transitive sentences.
Stative nouns are naturally the subjects of intransitive sentences.
Passive nouns are naturally the objects of transitive sentences.
Instrumental nouns are naturally the means by which an action is performed.
Receptive nouns are naturally indirect objects.

There is a pronoun for each gender.
If a noun is used in a more active role than its gender, it is promoted by
being prefixed with the relevant pronoun and a copula.

eg A knife, being a tool, is instrumental. Meat is passive.

I meat knife cut.
I cut the meat with a knife.
active is knife meat cut.
The knife cuts the meat.

If a noun is used in a less active role than its gender, it is demoted by
being suffixed with a copula and the relevant pronoun.

eg. People are active.

I wife is passive kiss.
I kiss my wife.

The normal word order is active stative passive instrumental receptive verb.
This refers to roles rather than genders. If a stative precedes an active
of follows another role it indicates posession, eg knife I is stative = my
knife.

Pete