Re: Case?

From: "Clint Jackson Baker" <litrex1@...>
> --What is the case of "theirs" in "I gave them
> theirs"?  I realized I was missing this case in my
> pronouns and need it.
Well, not necessarily.

Anyway:

             Status
    they     Nominative 3rd person pronoun
    them     Accusative 3rd person pronoun
    theirs   Possessive 3rd person pronoun
    their    Possessive 3rd person adjective

"Possessive" is kind of peculiar to English--it's not exactly the same as
"Genitive" in the familiar languages.  Example, example, hmm... Apparently in
Latin you can say {acervus frumenti} [pile.NOM grain.GEN] "a pile of grain",
while saying "grain's pile" in English wouldn't make the same kind of sense.
The English 'case' generally only applies to possession, metaphorical or
literal.

As for needing it... If your language can use adjectives substantively, you
should be able to use the 3rd person adjective in the same place.

For example, (this is 'pseudocodelang'):

    dó     a  eius su     gat
    give.I to 3P   3P-ADJ cat
    "I give them their cat"

    dó     a  eius el  su
    give.I to 3P   ART 3P-ADJ
    "I give them theirs"

Or you could invent a different way to go about it, such as use of a
possessive
suffix (this is Dunamy)

    kif .í   au.m    ar.em gä .é
    give.DIR 1S.PRES NC.3  cat.3-POSS
    "I give them their cat"

    kif .í   au.m    ar.em fih  .é
    give.DIR 1S.PRES NC.3  thing.3-POSS
    "I give them theirs"

Well, you *could* say "Kifí aum arem fihé", but I don't think it would be
normal... the normal way should be just like English, "Kifí aum arem ehas" --
'I give them theirs'.  [But I haven't actually thought about this yet.]

    *Muke!
--
http://frath.net/