Re: question about classifiers

On Mon, 6 Dec 1999, Matt Pearson wrote:

> Patrick Dunn wrote, in answer to Nik Taylor:
>
> >> How do you handle prepositions?
> >
> >That's my weak point, actually.  I considered two posibilities: the first
> >is the adjectival preposition, which can be a transitive verb with two
> >arguments:
> >
> >ngk -- "to be in"
> >ngk-qa-lu
> >to be in - I - manufactured enclosure.  "I"m in the house."
> >
> >As for adverbial prepositions, I don't know
>
> How about this?  Have a classifier/pronoun that refers back to
> previously mentioned verbs (or, more preciesly, the events to which
> they refer).  Thus:
>
>    give-I-it-you                "I gave it to you"
>    be:in-event-m.enclosure      "the event is in the house"
>
>    give-I-it-you   be:in-event-m.enclosure
>    "I gave it to you.  That event (= I gave it to you) was in the house"
>    i.e. "I gave it to you in the house"
>
> Matt.
Oooh, thanks!  I like that!  It also fixes my because- and when- clause
problems.