Re: Trigger Languages?

En réponse à Jeff Jones <jeffsjones@...>:

> I read all the recent posts about trigger languages and some
> additional
> archived messages, and there's still a few things I don't understand.
> How are relative and participial clauses handled? Does the relative
> pronoun
> always take the trigger? Does the trigger case affix on the verb
> indicate
> the case of the participle's implied subject?
Well, it all depends on how the trigger language handles relative clauses. If
accusative languages handle relative clauses so differently (look at English
with its postposed relative subclauses with relative pronouns, while Japanese
uses preposed relative subclauses without relative pronouns). Tagalog, the most
well known trigger language, doesn't have relative pronouns for instance.
Instead, it uses a "ligature" (na or -ng) to link the noun to the verb of the
relative clause (in any order, so the ligature can be on the noun if it's
followed by the verb, and vice versa). In this case, the trigger on the verb of
the relative clause does indeed indicate the function of the antecedent in the
sentence. See http://members.tripod.com/~isang_muli/frames/grammar.html#11 for
more details (if you can understand this page :)) . The style is a bit
confusing...).

My Itakian handles relative subclauses very differently. Actually, it doesn't
have subclauses at all. Instead, it goes all the way to nominalisation of the
verb, which is then juxtaposed to the noun it completes. The function of the
antecedent in the relative "clause" is given by the kind of nominalised form
the verb took.

As for participles, I don't know how they work in Tagalog (there is something
on the page I gave to you, but I can't understand it. It's much too unclear).
In Itakian, as I said, each verb has a number (five at most) of nominalised
forms which correspond to participles, and whose form depends on the function
of the implied trigger. So there is an Actor participle, a Patient participle,
etc...

> Also, has anyone done a trigger auxlang or loglang? It's hard to
> follow
> examples because of the additional complications in natlangs and
> naturalistic artlangs.
>
Saalangal seems to be the closest to what you're looking for (since AFAIK it's
straightforward and regular enough in its grammar), but unfortunately there
seems not to be much about it on the web :(( . My Itakian is also very
straightforward, but has too many other quirks to be of use for your purpose.

Now, isn't a trigger auxlang a contradiction in terms? ;)))))

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.