Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

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 ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com