Re: Another new project and trigger languages

On Sun, Jan 12, 2003 at 12:19:58AM -0500, Christopher Wright wrote:

> Not yet tired of Sturnan, ik kiraka*, I'm thinking of a new project. I
> have the letters I want for it, and I have a tentative interpretation.
> I'd like to make a trigger system, if only because I never have before.
> But I'm not sure that I understand triggers. Could someone help me with
> an idiot's explanation? I'll provide the idiot if you provide the
> explanation :))
Well, if I understand it right it goes like this:

        - all nouns but one are marked with their role: actor, patient,
          instrument, etc...
        - the remaining noun is marked with a marker that basically says
          "see verb for more information"
        - the verb is marked as to whether that remaining noun is the
          actor, patient, instrument, etc.

One way of looking at it is like passive voice, only extending to more
than just the patient and without reducing the transitivity.  Another,
more interesting, way of looking at it is that that verb affix is actually
something along the lines of our -er, -ee; that they're really saying
<noun with "see verb" marker> is the <verb>[er|ee|etc] <of the X> <to
the Y> <with the Z>.

Either that explanation will make total sense, or be total gibberish.
In the latter case, I hope somebody else explains it better.

Amanda