Re: Non-static verbs?

On Wed, Aug 16, 2000 at 11:16:05PM -0400, Nik Taylor wrote:
> "H. S. Teoh" wrote:
> > As for coming in/out of existence, I haven't really thought about that yet...
> > although I'd probably use an idiom I mentioned before, involving the nullar
> > number of the word for "universe"
>
> Interesting.  You could also use a passive form of a verb like "create"
> (if your lang has passives), and of "destroy" for ceasing to exist.
[snip]

There isn't really a difference between active and passive in my conlang.
It uses quite a different point of view from the usual subject-object
system in Indo-European languages. Nouns cases are:
- originative: the noun is the cause/initiator of an event/action
- receptive (not sure if this is a good name): the noun is the object
  being that the action is directed at. Usually similar to the "object"
  (in the sense of subject/object), but not always.
- instrumental: the noun is the vehicle for the action to be done, or the
  means by which the event happens (ie., a facilitator of the action)
- conveyant: the noun is the object that is "transmitted" by the action.
  For example, in the sentence
        I give the box to her
  "the box" is in the conveyant case, and "her" is in the receptive case,
  because "the box" is the object being transmitted, and "her" is the
  recipient. This case is also used in cases like:
        I told her about the meeting
  "the meeting" would be in the conveyant case, since it is what is told
  to "her". Again, "her" is the recipient, and therefore in the receptive
  case.
- locative: the location (in space or in time) where the event occurs.
  Temporal nouns usually appear in this case. This case is also used when
  the speaker wants to talk about things "pertaining" to the noun, and not
  the noun itself. For example:
        About that old man, he was beaten by the rogue.
  would be translated into something like:
        That-old-man(loc).  The-rogue(org) beat(verb) before(loc) him(rcp).
  Note that this is actually two sentences. The first sentence indicates
  that what follows is a discourse *about* "that old man", so it consists
  of a noun in the locative case. The second sentence shows the other use
  of the locative: "before", a temporal noun indicating past event, is in
  the locative case, showing location in time.
  This example also shows that there aren't really passives in the
  language: "he was beaten by the rogue" is the same as "the rogue
  beat(past) him". For the agent-less passive sentence "he was beaten",
  the originative noun "the rogue" is simply omitted:
        beat(verb) before(loc) him(rcp).

As for using "create" or "destroy", I suppose that would work as well,
although it does give a slightly different nuance in meaning:
        the.object(cvy) come(verb) past(loc) no-universe(nullar,rcp)
This means, "the object ceased to exist"; literally, "the object went into
no-universe (ie., non-existance)". Whereas, if you used a verb for
"destroy" instead:
        destroy(verb) past(loc) the.object(rcp)
this would imply that "the object" was specifically destroyed by
something. The first sentence is more along the lines of "the object just
vanished!" whereas this second sentence is more along the lines of
"something destroyed this object".


T