Re: Case?
| From: | Philip Newton <philip.newton@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, January 26, 2002, 8:51 |
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On 25 Jan 02, at 19:45, Clint Jackson Baker wrote:
> --What is the case of "theirs" in "I gave them
> theirs"?
Same as in "I gave them the book" -- accusative, assuming you're using
a nominative/accusative system. (Probably absolutive under an
absolutive/ergative system).
> I realized I was missing this case in my
> pronouns and need it.
Note that it's not a variation of "their" -- at least, I don't think
so. For example, "mine" is a possessive pronoun, but "my" is more like
an adjective since it can't stand by itself for ("pro") a noun.
So if you want to have both possessive pronouns and possessive
adjectives (is that the right term?), then feel free, but they don't
have to both exist, and they don't have to look similar.
For example, Greek doesn't have possessive pronouns like "mine",
instead using a phrase "my own" (o dikos mou). On the other hand, I
would probably consider "mou" to be the genitive of "ego", which *is* a
personal pronoun. So perhaps I'm simply confused.
Cheers,
Philip
--
Philip Newton <Philip.Newton@...>
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