Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Possession (was: Re: Ergative)

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Thursday, October 22, 1998, 3:04
Sally Caves wrote:
> A book is with me, in Welsh. I've toyed for a long time with making this > a part of Teonaht.
Watya'iya`isa uses the dative with salauni' (sa- = dative-applicative, launi' = be (loc.)), thus: ta^lnaz pisani salauni'l = to-me house it-is = I have a/the house. However, the possessor can be made into the absolutive thru the general dative-object rule (dative can become absolutive; former absolutive is made perlative). Thus, pisaniyi salauni'u = house-perl. dat.appl.-be-1Sabs. Dative-object construction is required for transitive verbs when the recipient is a 1st or 2nd person pronoun, and very common with 3rd person animate pronouns, moderately common with 3rd person inanimate pronouns, and fairly rare with animate nouns, and non-existent with inanimate nouns. Anyways, with intransitive verbs (like salauni'), it's also quite common for 1st and 2nd person pronouns. In fact, I suspect that salauni' would evolve into a simple transitive verb "to have" in some of the descendants. Perhaps the dative might remain in some archaic constructions, equivalent to our "methinks".
> Presently, there is a distinction, of course, between possession that > is agentive and possession that isn't: Somebody has blue eyes through no > willful act of his own, but someone has a house because he's bought it. > _aned_ and _harem_. I think the gods, though, should be exempt from all > unagentive acts: The gods HAVE (harem, not aned as I have written it) > retractible claws because they are gods and have planned everything.
Cool! I never even thought about that. Perhaps *that* will determine when the dative-object construction is used in salauni' ... Something to think about. -- "It's bad manners to talk about ropes in the house of a man whose father was hanged." - Irish proverb http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Conlang/W.html ICQ: 18656696 AOL: NikTailor