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Jaĩbi update and request for comment s

From:Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...>
Date:Thursday, August 28, 2008, 21:14
Hallo!

On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:17:15 +0100, Christopher Bates wrote:

> [...] If I > remember correctly, that was something I always used to like about Old > Albic - it had a nice balance when it came to plain agglutination vs > other morphological processes.
Thank you!
> > I noticed that your morphosyntax is sensitive of degrees of volition, > > though it works in a way not very similar to Old Albic. > > > > > Yes, the voice system is very sensitive to volition, and the selection > of prepositions also depends on it. In terms of similarity to Old Albic, > there seems to be some similarity between the choice of prepositions in > Jaĩbi and the choice of case in Old Albic, but the verbal systems do > seem to differ more.
Indeed.
> There seem to be semantic differences (in Jaĩbi, > transitivity does not guarantee the use of a voice indicating volition, > whereas in Old Albic it seems that all transitive verbs are active),
Yes, in Old Albic all transitive verbs are active.
> and > differences in morphological realisation (in Old Albic the distinction > seems to be primarily marked by choice of agreement marker, whereas in > Jaĩbi it is marked by choice of a fused voice/mood marker). I also note > that you have a separate middle voice, whereas in Jaĩbi the middle has > been integrated into a three term system, which essentially consists of: > > Middle - controlled, actor 'version' > Active - controlled, non-actor 'version' > Passive - uncontrolled > > Presumably the middle marker is compatible with both active and stative > verbs in Old Albic?
No, only with active verbs.
> I find it interesting that Old Albic also has an animacy distinction, > although it seems to be grammaticalised (ie a grammatical gender system > rather than a purely semantic classification).
The majority of nouns in Old Albic are in the class expected from their semantics, with a small number of semantically inanimate nouns in the animate class. Such irregularities - often motivated by mythology - seem to be typical of animate/inanimate systems in natlangs, BTW.
> Jaĩbi has semantic > classification in various areas based on animacy, and I view the > sensitivity to volition partly as an extension of the semantic > classification elsewhere into animate vs inanimate. Animacy of referents > has an effect on selection of possessive markers, demonstratives, > prepositions, and a number of other morphemes. > > So there are some interesting similarities with Old Albic, but also > differences. They are both languages which are sensitive to control and > animacy in the areas of verbal morphology and nominal role marking, but > the exact distinctions made are not the same.
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