Re: CHAT: Nakiltipkaspimak

Daniel Andreasson wrote:

> > Well, truth be told. The agreement-incorporated noun order is the most
> > common cross linguisticly.
>
>Ok. I'm gonna have to read up on causatives and the Mirror Principle
>before I make a decision whether to have it agr-inc:noun or the
>other way around. Wouldn't wanna break the Mirror Principle, now
>would I? :)
Sure you would. :-) Lots of natlangs do. In fact, no language strictly
obeys it to my knowledge. The Mirror Principle is just a strong statistical
tendency, just like most aspects of typology, not an exceptionless rule. As
you look through the Polysynthesis Parameter, pay attention to the ordering
of tense/aspect/mood in Mohawk. The order changes quite frequently.

Also, do you remember the Chickasaw agreement paradigms? 1st singular I vs.
1st singular II? Then there's the question of why 1st and 2nd have
agreement morphemes, but 3rd does not. They aren't silent, they are
non-existant. I've spent hours totally more than a day's worth struggling
with these issues.

>Daniel, who was hoping - in vain - that the MP was applicable on
>Swedish so he'd be able to finish his stupid assignment for tomorrow.
>It's gonna be a long night...
I sympathize. I've recently had to help students who were upset about the
fact that the majority of derivational affixes in English are suffixes, but
then there a couple prefixes like en- in enrage and enlarge.




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Marcus Smith
AIM:  Anaakoot
"When you lose a language, it's like
dropping a bomb on a museum."
   -- Kenneth Hale
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