Re: Introducing Paul Burgess and his radioactive imagination!
| From: | BP Jonsson <bpj@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, March 12, 2003, 9:29 |
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At 11:04 8.3.2003 -0500, Sally Caves wrote:
>The
>problem with thinking and talking in Teonaht is that it violates the syntax
>I'm used to, and you have to think of the object first. Even if you front
>the subject. That's the problem with analytic languages of unusual and
>twisted syntax. Writing is easier.
Same thing with Sohlob. Its WO is VPA (Verb-Patient-Agent) which is of
course quite sensible for an ergative language, and works fine when I
write, but as soon as I try to speak/think without writing I slip into VAP
-- not that bad considering that there's case marking, but to a putative
native speaker it'ld sound like I was emphasizing the agent all the time,
which is not the correct idiom.
/ B.Philip Jonsson B^)
--
mailto:melrochX@melroch.net (delete X!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No man forgets his original trade: the rights of nations and of kings sink
into questions of grammar, if grammarians discuss them.
-Dr. Samuel Johnson (1707 - 1784)
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