Re: Development and Use of the Silindion Optative
| From: | Elliott Lash <erelion12@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Wednesday, July 28, 2004, 5:23 |
|---|
--- Jeffrey Henning <jeffrey@...> wrote:
> On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 17:31:24 -0700, Elliott Lash
> <erelion12@...> wrote:
>
> > The Silindion Optative is a rather confusing
> >mood/tense. First I will talk about the form of it,
> >then I will talk about it's uses.
>
> ...
>
> >Let me know what you think.
>
> First, can you tell us more about the aspect system
> and the mood system of
> Silindion? (I checked your site, but didn't see
> anything.)
>
> Best regards,
>
> Jeffrey
There isn't anything on my site, since I'm still
trying to work out HTML, (as an aside, any help would
that would be appreciated).
Anyways, you'd like to know about aspects and moods in
Silindion..hm..
I think it's like this:
Aspect:
Really only 3
Continuous
Perfect
Simple
(Optative in some of it's senses can sort of be
another mood)
(Stative might be another aspect, although it is
lexicalised and therefore not really part of the
verbal system)
The Continuous Aspect is present in the Past Tense
morphologically. It is marked with the so called
"imperfect" marker -ne (which becomes -nei in some
dialects).
Hence:
til "see" tili- "present stem"
Imperfect
tilinesi tilinena
tilinelë tilinenta
tilinë tilinento/tilinentë
The imperfect denotes such things as:
"I was seeing"
"I used to see"
"I would see" (habitually)
As in:
Whenever people in pain would go to the temple,
the priests would help them
Lëovissa yaninto nima inekavi
when(ever) go-subj-3rdp. people pained
noro i noinna,
to the temple-allative
poskenentossa i noyondë
heal-impf.-3rdp.-3rdp. the priest-p.
----------------------------------
The Perfect stressed complete action. In most
Silindion writings it is not denoted by a
morphological verb form, but rather by a particle.
The perfect particle is "liu" which basically means
"through". It is preceded or followed by a past tense
(in some texts by the present)
Example:
"I have played this flute the whole day"
alinisi liu i phiorëan
play-past-1s. prf. the flute-acc.
më erë nassëan ulori.
this during whole-acc day-gen.
-----------------------------
The simple or aorist aspect is found in the present
and past tenses of the indicative.
"priests offer oblations"
santo noyondë sayein.
raise-up-3p. priest-pl. oblation-pl-acc.
--------------------------------
The mood system of Silindion is rather complex:
Indicative
Subjunctive (Conjunctive)
General Irrealis
Imperative
Optative (in some of its uses)
Necessitive/Obligative (? terminology ?)
1) The indicative mood is what all the previous
exampples are in.
--------------------------------------------
2) The subjunctive or conjunctive mood is found after
particles. It is formed in the present by adding "i"
to the verb stem, in the past by adding "u" to the
augmented stem:
til- til-i-
til- assil-u-
It has various meanings:
after "ta" = English Subjunctive:
aphelkë ta onëanisi "He asked that I leave"
ask-pst.-3s. that leave-subj.-1s
after "lëovissa" <when> and "kalëossa" <after>:
Either "would + verb" or "verb in present or past",
depending on the aspect of the main verb. If the main
verb is imperfect, then use "would" otherwise the
present or past.
after "nissa" <be it that, let>
and "nayoi(ssë)" <let>
nissa yanin "let him go"
nayoissë yanintë "let them go" (High Silindion)
There are probably other uses of the subjunctive that
I am not remembering at the moment.
---------------------------------------------------
3) General Irrealis: This mood is formed by adding
various auxiliary verbs and particles to the
infinitive of the main verb:
nai- (in the present) + infinitive
"may, be allowed + verb"
Basically, this indicates the possibility of doing
something, either because someone told you that you
could do it, or general possibility. It does not look
at whether or not the action is probable. This is the
closest to the "future-optative meaning of "will do
something in the future, but it might not happen". As
this sense of the future was lossed in Low Silindion,
this "nai- + infinitive" once more became important.
In the earlier language, when the future-optative
meaning was something different, this form was also
rather important. It was only when its meaning
overlapped with the future-optative meaning that there
was competition.
nai- (in the past) + infinitive
"might have + verb"
This shows general possibility but indicates that the
action did not take place. Usually the action is
something that was desired, and in its failure to be
enacted, the subject is expressing some sort of
unhappiness.
nai- (in the present) + infinitive + vorë
"might + verb"
This shows that the speaker is uncertain even as
regards the possibility of the action. The "vorë" is
an old infinitive of the word meaning "to be able", so
the whole phrase means "might be able to X but not
sure"
---------------------------------------------------
Optative/Future
This mood has been covered in the previous message.
-----------------------------------------------
Imperative
This mood is rather straight-forward.
-------------------------------------------
Necessitive/Obligative
This has various different realisations with slightly
different meanings:
1) ther, thi "it is/was necessary" + verb "need"
ther sinti horiellu
necessary-3s me-dat. find-inf.-3s.
"I need to find him"
The need is personal/subjective here, and can be
viewed from the outside as rather unnecessary
depending on the context.
2)yathendar, ayathensi "must, ought"
"it is/was an obligation" + verb.
yathendasi horiellu
obligation-1s find-inf.-3s.
"I must find him"
The need here is objective. By finding whoever it is
that is lost, the subject fulfills a moral or lawful
duty.
3) BE + necessitive participle + allative agent.
"should, is fit to"
The necessitive participle is formed from the gerund,
by putting the gerund in the dative case:
nam "name" namma (ger) nammanu (nct.prt)
ne: "get married" nina (ger) nindu
vohwur "discuss" vohwurna (ger) vohwurnanu
etc.
Example:
ë sinta nammanu, "Olomandili"
is by-me name-nct.prtc. Olomandil-ess.
"He is fit to be named 'Olomandil', by me"
"He should be named Olomandil, be me"
"I should name him "Olomandil"
Indicates a situation in which something should be
done, because it seems right by nature. The object
seems ready and willing to be affected in some way by
the verb. .. if that makes any sense.
------------
I hope that helps.
Elliott
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages!
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail