Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: What would you call this?

From:Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>
Date:Tuesday, June 17, 2003, 3:06
Quoting Garth Wallace <gwalla@...>:

> Peter Bleackley wrote: > > I have an idea for a language that achieves free word order by inflecting > > the verb according to whether the subject or object occurs first. In the > > default form, the following word orders are possible > > VSO > > SVO > > SOV > > > > In the marked form, these are possible > > > > VOS > > OVS > > OSV > > > > If the verb is marked, and only one unmarked noun is present, the verb > > becomes passive. > > > > What would the terminology be for such an inflection? > > So, the inflection swaps the positions of the subject and object? Sounds > like inverse voice.
No, inverse "voice", as traditionally used in Algonkian studies at any rate, is not a voice at all, but the only way to express certain kinds of grammatical relations. In Algonkian languages, this hierarchy operates something like as follows: 1, 2 > 3 proximate animate > 3 obviative animate > 3 inanimate In such languages, the *only* way to say that a 3 obv, say, is acting on a first, second, or third prox is to use the inverse verb marking. Otherwise, a direct marker shows that the actants are behaving according to (rather than contrary to) the way the hierarchy predicts. In Meskwaki, for example: ne-wa:pam-e:-w-a 1-look.at,ANIM.Obj-DIR-3-3Sg "I look at him/her/it" (acting acc. to hierarchy) ne-wa:pam-ekw-w-a 1-look.at,Anim.Obj-INV-3-3sg "He looks at me" (acting contrary to hierarchy) The fact that this is the regular manner of grammatical relations, and not some kind of unusual obligatory passive construction, is proven by several kinds of anaphoric evidence that I won't go into here. (I must note that in some Algonkian languages, such as Ojibwe, the inverse *has* become a passive, but this is not the case in Meskwaki, and presumably not the case in Proto-Algonkian.) ========================================================================= Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally, Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of 1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter. Chicago, IL 60637