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Re: Using 'to be' and cases

From:Yahya Abdal-Aziz <yahya@...>
Date:Wednesday, September 28, 2005, 14:32
Hi all,

On Mon, 26 Sep 2005, Henrik Theiling wrote:
> Hi! > > zzz <kyrawertho@...> writes: > > Ah, now I understand what your predicative case is. If I'd use -n for this > > case, "tse hugzedru agus keizns jma" would either be > > > > tse hugzedru agus jman keizns > > or > > tse hugzedrun agus jma keizns > > Well, in case 'hugzedru' means 'dream' and 'jma' means 'thought', I'd > rather say that with a predicative case, it would be either: > > tse hugzedru agus jman keizns. > 'Her dream was a thought.' > vs. > tse jma agus hugzedrun keizns. > 'Her thought was a dream.' > > So something similar maybe. > > > It seems to me keizos (to be) can be then be left out also (exept in > > this case because -ns is past). > > Of course! :-) That's what Fukhian regularly does. :-)
And this is also what many natlangs do, for example, in Malay you would normally say: Impiannya sebuah fikiran. 'Her dream: a thought.' and Fikirannya sebuah impian. 'Her thought: a dream.' Although you COULD say Impiannya adalah sebuah fikiran. 'Her dream was a thought.' and Fikirannya adalah sebuah impian. 'Her thought was a dream.' - you'd be more likely to say instead Impiannyalah sebuah fikiran. 'Her DREAM: a thought.' and Fikirannyalah sebuah impian. 'Her THOUGHT: a dream.' --- Fikirannya adalah sebuah impian. can be analysed as follows - fikir + -an + -nya think + abstract noun suffix + 3S possessive suffix ada + -lah be + emphatic suffix se- + buah one + general numeral coefficient ('fruit') impi + -an dream + abstract noun suffix All other Austronesian languages that I'm aware of, eg Cham, Iban, Murut, Kadazan, follow a similar pattern, rarely expressing the notion of equivalence by a transitive verb "to be" (something). Rather, they tend to use just the emphatic particle (eg Malay - lah, Kadazan -no) to emphasise equality. Regards, Yahya -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.8/113 - Release Date: 27/9/05