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Re: Help in Determining Asha'ille Typology

From:Arthaey Angosii <arthaey@...>
Date:Thursday, August 7, 2003, 0:27
Emaelivpeith Jesse Bangs:
>These are the wrong kind of examples to use for deciding whether a >language is accusative, ergative, or active.
Oops. Like I said, I don't quite know what to do with these labels. :P
>Can you post translations of these three sentences:
I decided to only post the version with explicit, separate subjects and objects (rather the also use the conjugations), since that's all you seem to need. Also, I used "I walk" instead of "I run" -- shouldn't change anything, right?
>1) I eat food. >2) I run. >3) I fall.
1) Échiv en'i ne chodál. eat self OBJ: food 2) Mmasaev en'i. walk self 3) Nesheiv en'i.
>An accusative language is one in which "I" in all three sentences is >marked the same (nominative), while "food" is marked differently >(accusative).
So Asha'ille looks solidly accusative. I found this in the Wikipedia:
>Another common classification is whether the language is ergative or >accusative. If the language has cases, this is determined by whether the >subject of an intransitive verb has the same case as the subject or the >object of a transitive verb. If it doesn't, but the order is SVO or OVS, >this is determined by whether the subject of the intransitive verb is on the >same side as the subject or the object of the transitive verb.
Now, I realize that anyone could have written that explanation and could therefore be totally wrong. But if it is correct, then I should point out that Asha'ille doesn't have cases (at least as I understand the meaning of what case is). Is Asha'ille accusative anyway? Thanks for the help, Jesse! :) Emaelivpeith HS Teoh:
>T > >-- >I see that you JS got Bach.
Ooo, Teoh arrises from Lurkland too! :) I see your God-as-a-Perl-Script is at work again, aptly replying to JS Bangs' e-mail with JS Bach. :P -- AA

Replies

H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
JS Bangs <jaspax@...>
Arthaey Angosii <arthaey@...>