Re: "There can be"

Mark Reed wrote:

(with corrections)
>How do langs with various other idiomatic renderings of "there is/are"
>convey the idea "there can be"? (c.f. Favorite catchphase of
>fantasy-struck boy-children of the 80's, "there can be only one").
>Would "se puede haber" send the right message in Spanish?  What the
>heck can you do with "I'l y a" in French - "I'l y peut avoir"?
>
This crossed my mind in the course of writing up Prevli grammar, but I see I
glossed over it.....

There is a verb /heli/ 'to be' used almost exclusively in statements of
identity, "Noun is Noun"; also, we distinguish be ~become /hina/ : heli zek
sando 'he is a shaman' vs. mehina zek sando 'he wants to be (become) a
shaman'. Theoretically /heli/ could have aspectual derivatives, but they
don't make much sense-- and since adjectives are verbs, and there is a
distinct passive, "to be" doesn't occur in those cases.

There is existential /el/ 'there is', irrealis /on/ (so far the only verb
with a suppletive form), and in all but formal speech it substitutes for
/heli/--  heli kan 'it's me' --> el kan; heli zek sando --> el sando zek.
(It has lots of other uses too........) I think it's probable that /el/ will
have aspectual forms--"there has to be..., there ought to be..., there's
going to be..., there can be..." but I haven't gotten to that page
yet......and I have difficulty thinking up appropriate examples.

"There can be only one" I think would be:
tuvel nam homnå
/tuv-el nam honam/
can-[there.is]
one sole/alone

and maybe:
disel hovmö gilgä i o halde 'there's going to be lots of people at the
festival'
/dis-el hovim gilaN i o halid/
going.to+el many people at the festival

Perhaps, giving advice to an artist:
diki borel yeme(t) nivut
here ought-el blue(-pl) cloud-pl
"There ought to be blue clouds here"  (weird!!)

or, irrealis: diki boron yemet nivut
'Maybe there ought to be blue clouds here'

We also have a form _tufel_ 'maybe, could be' < /tuv+heli/, directly
comparable to French "peut-etre" used exclusively in reply to questions;
it's not needed as an adverb, because that sense is conveyed by irrealis
mode.