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Re: inalienable possession

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Friday, November 20, 1998, 19:18
charles wrote:
> I've been thinking of using active and passive participles > to replace all prepositions. Is that possible in natlangs?
Explain what your mean by this. If you mean forms like "concerning" in English, then you'd simply be creating new prepositions. However, it is possible to eliminate prepositions (altho there are no known natlangs with *no* adpositions, there's usually at least 1 or 2 words that can only be called adpositions) with verbs and nouns. For example, instead of "he went up the hill", "he climbed the hill", thus incorporating direction with the verb. Better examples, "he went top of-the-hill" (i.e., genetive, if you have one). In fact, this is often the origin of adpositions. Words like "top" lose their nominal/verbal quality and become purely adpositional, but there are languages with only one or two generic prepositions, it's just that that's probably only a temporary condition, after a while, noun/verb phrases evolve into full-blown adpositions. -- "It has occured to me more than once that holy boredom is good and sufficient reason for the invention of free will." - "Lord Leto II" (Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert) http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/X-Files/ ICQ #: 18656696 AOL screen-name: NikTailor