Re: Newbie here

> Here, the verb "make" takes "me king" as its complement.  "Me king" is
what is
> called a 'small clause'.  A small clause is a clause which lacks
auxiliaries,
> tense, and other inflectional material, and in which the subject ("me"
in this
> instance) receives its case-marking from a higher verb.  Other
So how would a small clause be defined for languages which don't mark
case?

> Turning from linguistics to conlangs:  In Tokana, the expression would
have
> the
> following form:
>
>   Sa taksam ia Bob
>   "They call-me Quot Bob"
>
> Here, _ia_ is a special particle used to introduce quoted material,
and to
> introduce names and titles in vocative constructions:
I find this *very* elegant and admire it quite a bit.

Okay, I wrote the previous sentence and *then* realized that I have the
same thing in my conlang, only under a different name.  Go figure ;).
In Yivríndil the particle is the less aesthetic 'ef', and the above
sentence would be:

Al sémayo ef Bob
I am-called Quot Bob.

>   Sa itse ia hio'
>   they said Quot yes
>   "They said yes"
Same deal in Yivríndil:

Ela peyyal ef ké.
They said Quot yes.

The next one, however, does not happen in Yivríndil:

>   N'afa, ia Bob?
>   Qu-accompany Quot Bob
>   "Are you coming along, Bob?"
Nope, can't use 'ef' for vocatives.  Yiv doesn't mark vocatives except
with the optional use of the 1sg possesive affix, literally "my Bob."
Applied to 'Bob,' the vocative would be 'Boibeva', which sounds quite
silly!

BTW, I really appreciate the aesthetic flavor of Tokana, Matt.  It's one
of the prettier conlangs around, IMHO.

Jesse Bangs
(I have no idea if my sig will show up below this . . .)