Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Gz^rod|in (Some grammar now : articles)

From:Adrian Morgan <morg0072@...>
Date:Tuesday, March 14, 2000, 23:55
Christophe Grandsire wrote, quoting someone
(silly interface doesn't allow me to check who):

> >It seems to me that an article that expresses > >number and person of the subject as well as > modus/tempus of the verb might be considered an > >auxiliary verb as well.
Owing to my _very_ elementary grasp of formal grammar I don't really understand a lot of the terminology in this post. If you think any of it might be useful to me wrt writing the Gz^rod|in documentation, then I could do with a little explanation. Point me to a good website if that's the easiest way.
> I think that such a construction exists in > Basque. So it's not that artificial. (You might > argue that Basque is a n unnatural language > though :-))
..
> Well, Basque is a little different, it uses a > periphrastic conjugation for most of its verbs, > with the auxiliaries corresponding to 'to have' > and 'to be' (I don't remember the forms though), > and a few other defective ones. Those > auxiliaries are really like verbs and are used > as verbs in their one right too (with > periphrastic constructions for future for > example). So it's a little different. But it's > true that such kinds of articles could be the > origin of real auxiliaries in a later state of > the language (let's say... within 6 > generations? :) ).
-- http://www.netyp.com/member/dragon http://www.flinders.edu.au