Re: inalienable possession

At 19:44 18/11/98 +0100, you wrote:
>Nik Taylor wrote:
>>
>> > Couldn't it be in some natlangs the origin of their cases? I've
>> > read somewhere that prepositions came often from others nouns or
>> > verbs.
>> > Imagine the evolution: verbs->pre-postpositions->case endings (or
>> > beginnings).
>>
>> Almost always verbs --> postpositions --> case-endings.  It's
>> probably quite common, I don't know of any examples, but that
>> process would probably take a long time, so it's not surprising
>> that there'd be no known examples.  We know of
>>    verbs --> adpositions, and postpositions --> case-endings.
>> For example: the English verbs "concern" had the participle
>> "concerning", which is now a preposition.  Mandarin Chinese
>> uses the verb "give" as a preposition marking indirect object.
>
>Oops... In Almaqerin I used the following evolution:
>
>    case endings --> suffixes --> postpositions --> prepositions
>
>The switch from postpositions to prepositions is a feature
>of Almaqerin, whereas the 'brother' language Sitarwelas
>only shows:
>    case endings --> suffixes / postpositions
>
>(suffixes are still bound to the noun, but do not decline
>anymore)
>
>I thought that "case endings" were very ancient features in
>(real) languages, and that the evolution I adopted would look
>quite natural. Perhaps that's not the case?
>
>Didier.
>-- -
>
>
        Language evolution is often seen as cyclic. You have a type of
language, say it's mostly agglutinating. The suffixes and prefixes begin to
melt with each other with the phonological changes and the language becomes
inflected (I think Finnish is in the process of becoming inflected). Then
the inflected forms tend to disappear, replaced by analysed ones (it's just
the evolution of English) and the language becomes isolating. Then the forms
used in isolating languages tend to come into the stress of a single word
and one noun phrase becomes one word. What were different words become one
word with a prefix or a suffix. The language becomes agglutinating and the
cycle can begin again. So it's difficult to say that some feature is more
ancient then another one. Such assertion is just meaningless.

                                                Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"R=E9sister ou servir"

homepage: http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepage/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html