Re: Using 'to be' and cases

Hi!

Please, could you switch off HTML altogether when posting?

zzz <kyrawertho@...> writes:
> While translating, I came across the sentence "is her dream a thought or is
> her thought a dream?". English uses a fixed word-order; in my language
> Neimalu (previously Némalo) the translations "tse hugzedru agus keizöns
> jüma" and "tse jüma agus keizöns hugzedru" are the same because word-order
> doesn't matter in this case. Normally there would be an accusative word but
> because 'is' is being used, I do not use the accusative and I also don't use
> stress. ...
Accusative is used neither in German here, nor in Japanese (two langs
that more or less overtly mark case).  The point is, one of the
constituents is usually viewed to be part of the verb, which is,
therefore, intransitive, while the other one is the argument.

Japanese shows this quite clearly: in 'is her dream a thought',
'dream' would be marked to be the topic, while 'thought' would get no
marking and is just before the 'to be' verb.  The structure is:

   she-GEN dream-TOP thought is QUESTION?

I.e. 'thought-being' is the concept the intransitive, compound verb
expresses, and the sentences asks whether 'her dream' is the argument
of that verb.

Contrast with: 'is her thought a dream?':

   she-GEN thought-TOP dream is QUESTION?

In German, it's essentially the same, only it does not used markers
that make the situation as clear as in Japanese, but uses word order
only.

In my conlang Fukhian, I have a special 'predicative' case for the
noun that makes the verb.  It is essentially a noun > essive verb
suffix.  The structure is, therefore, very similar to that of the
Japanese sentence.

> Should I use accusative in 'to be'-sentences like 'he-nom she-acc be' or
> genitive maybe?
Well, this decision is up to you. :-)

Accusative seems a bit unlikely, though, but I'd not be surprised if
some natlang used it anyway.  Genitive, maybe.  Or have compound verbs
or something.

> Also, because I do not use stress, a question is pronounced like any other
> sentence. Therefore I use the word 'tse' for making questions (except when a
> word like who, which, where, etc. is already used) should I use words for
> exclamations, hypothetical sentences aswel?
You could, of course.  But again, that's up to you, I neither see any
particular reason why that would be strange and OTOH, neither why it
would be advisable to do.

**Henrik