Re: Rinya cases

>From: Daniel Andreasson <daniel_noldo@...>
>Subject:      Rinya cases
>Hello all.
>Okay. I've got a serious case problem. My Rinya is
>ergative.
xxxxx
>I'm thinking of introducing a new case to mark the
>Influenced Object/The Experienced, OBJECTIVE.
DISCLAIMER: I don't want to computerize, analyze, trivialize, or
otherwise corrupt the development of Rinya cases. I just find the
examples intriguing for my own selfish, personal investigation of the
basis of case grammar as proposed by DeLancy. He claims that all case
is at root THEME-LOCATION, spatial; and I am going to try to express
these cases with an adverbialized format of my own that is similar. So
far I have found it to be true that one can express case with the just
the verbs "is_located" and "moves; (dis and pas from my vector space
grammar) combined with adverbs. I don't think it's practical for all
cases. But it does seem to allow any case conceived a form of
expression.  It might be good for, well, rare cases :-) I hope it can
help you develop Rinya.

>
>Example:
>"Will looked at a mouse." 6
>Will is agent, he deliberately looked at the mouse.
>He was acting.
Will-NOM (ActiveV) past move-toward a mouse [his] eye-ACC
Will-om  (hiah)     ad    pas-tor   ol sur  'ayho-ac.
Willom hiah ad pastor ol sur 'ayhoac. 12
Will ad pastor ol sur 'ayho. 8
Will moved toward a mouse his eyes.

If it is not clear that Will is agent, he can be so
marked with "hiah". NGL "hiah" identifies grammatical subject
with the semantic agent.

--------

>
>"Will saw the mouse." 4
At eyeDAT of Wills was located the (abstract) mouseNOM.
'ayhoad Wills        pa dis     ku      id     surom. 9

Locative form. Stative verb.


To Will's eyes [past]-move the (abstract) mouse.
'ayhoad  Wills   ad    pas  ku     id       sur.

Dynamic form. Eventive verb.
The abstract object, the image of the mouse, moved to
Will's eyes, Will is the experiencer. I hope this reflects your
sense of the event; your desired case semantics.

>Will is the experiencer, and mouse is the experienced.
>Will didn't act, he just happened to see the mouse.
>Will = ABS. ; Mouse = OBJ.
>
>Note that I want to have the same verb in both sentences
>and don't want to inflect the verb (as e.g. Teonaht does).
>I want to show the semantic roles just using different
>cases on the noun phrases.
In this system there are only two verbs. They are modified with
tense particles and optionally detachable adverbial suffixes.
Free standing adverbs together with the "glueable" adverbial
suffixes carry the cases. Actually case seems to be distributed
over the sentence, counting words like hiah/sieh, the active/passive
markers. Case seems to resist being bottled. I think that any case
has an innate actual or abstract spatial sense, but that is just
the beginning of the full meaning. Territoriality is the beginning,
not the end, of case.


Good Luck with your new lang,

Jerry

>Agent = Ergative
>Experiencer/Patient = Absolutive
>Recipient = Dative
>Instrument = Instrumental
>Influenced Object/The Experienced = Objective ??
>
>Daniel Andreasson
>http://conlang.nu
>