Re: Con-prescriptivism

On Fri, 26 Mar 1999, Nik Taylor wrote:

> I seem to remember that Elet Anta has
> a fictional language academy, but does anyone else have one?
Not really, but I've found an instance of incorrect (or rather
colloquial) usage in a story I wrote:

dolea chalat moya rythe arlene sayom lea arlat
"he sees the largest city that exists anywhere in the world"

Here _lea_ is used as a relative pronoun, and the correct place for
it is the subject slot of the subordinate clause:

moya  rythe lea  arlene       sayom    arlat
large most  that in-the-world anywhere exists

_Lea_, however, is also used for impersonal constructions (like _lea
daysenat_ "it's raining" and as such creeps as close to the verb as
possible.

   Irina


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