Re: erg/abs; verbs.
From: | Jens_Daniel Persson <stockbaum@...> |
Date: | Tuesday, March 14, 2000, 18:53 |
> > Now, would Ate-he apple and disappeared
> > (2s) (acc,trigger) (2s)
> >
> > still mean 'I ate an apple and disappeared'
> > or 'The apple was eaten by me and disappeared'?
>
>Mh, that's a problem! I didn't think about it!
>I could use relative prefixes to join two sentences and determinate the new
>subject: this could be a solution not to be ambiguous, but it seems too
>artificial:
>
>Ate-3s apple-acc-trg and determinator1(what before was the
>subject)-disappeared-3s
>= the apple was eaten by him and he (=the man) disappeared
>
>Ate-3s apple-acc-trg and determinator1(what before was the
>object)-disappeared-3s
>= the apple was eaten by him and it (=the apple) disappeared
>
>
>Or I could introduce grammatical gender to use it (also) this way:
>
>Ate-3s-male apple-acc-trg and disappeared-3s-male
>= the apple was eaten by him and he (=the man) disappeared
>
>Ate-3s-male apple-acc-trg and disappeared-3s-fruit
>= the apple was eaten by him and it (=the apple) disappeared
>
The second method is still not guaranteed to be unambigous but a little
ambiguity in a few places improves the possibility to create jokes in a
language; I like method 2!
/Jens
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