Degrees of volition in active languages (was Re: Chevraqis:asketch)

Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:

> I note an interesting feature here, namely, the use of definite articles
> with proper names.  This strikes me as odd, because it is so redundant.
> But then, there all sorts of odd redundant things done in languages.
Your own native language, German, is guilty of this redundancy (some dialects at
least).  Same thing with Hungarian, and most (if not all) of the Austronesian
languages that have articles (Malagasy, Tagalog, Polynesian, etc.)--though in the
latter case a different series of articles is used with proper names:

Malagasy:

  ny boky      "the book"
  i Noro       "Noro"

My own conlang, Tokana has this feature.  The rule is that *all* definite noun
phrases require an article--including not only definite descriptions, but also
proper names, universally quantified noun phrases, and definite possessed noun
phrases:

  ne kal            "the man"
  ne Tsion          "John"
  ne kekua kal      "each man" (lit. "the each man")
  te katiana Tsion  "John's house" (lit. "the house-his John")

Tokana uses the same set of articles for common nouns and proper nouns, but does
distinguish animates (which take "ne") from inanimates (which take "te").

In some ways, this is more logical than the English pattern.


> Basic word order in
> Nur-ellen is SVO, but can be handled freely;
> for example, while Nur-ellen does not have passive voice, the object can
> be put first.  A sentence like _Veleg dagnent Turin_ could be translated
> as "Beleg was killed by Turin"; the case marking makes it clear that it
> cannot mean "Beleg killed Turin", which would be _Beleg dagnent Durin_.
> Sentences with inanimate "subjects", as in "A computer computed the
> orbit of Mars", are formed by using an instrumental phrase which in such
> cases is usually put in front, e.g.
>
> Ni gendel gendent men e Garnil.
>
> The agent slot is left empty in the example above.
>
> Compare:
>
> Men`lgoldir gendent ni gendel men e Garnil.
Tokana does the same sort of thing (notice that case is marked on the article
rather than the noun, not unlike Tagalog):

  Na      Tulin kaihe-n        Pelek
  the.NOM Turin killed-the.ABS Beleg
  "Turin killed Beleg"

  Ne      Pelek kaihe-na       Tulin
  the.ABS Beleg killed-the.NOM Turin
  "Beleg, Turin killed (him)"
  or "Beleg was killed by Turin"

  Ne      Pelek kaihe
  the.ABS Beleg killed
  "Beleg was killed / Someone killed Beleg"

In general, non-absolutive arguments may be freely omitted (or, in your terms, the
non-absolutive slots may be left empty).  The absolutive is in some sense the
'core' argument of the sentence--making Tokana an active case-marking language
with an ergative/absolutive 'base', I guess.  When the absolutive argument is
omitted, an antipassive prefix "u-" must be added to the verb:

  Na      Tulin u-kaihe
  the.NOM Turin APASS-killed
  "Turin killed someone"
  or "Turin did some killing"

  U-kaihe
  APASS-killed
  "Somebody was killed"
  or "A killing-event happened"

Matt.