Re: word poll #2: articles

 >From: Garrett Jones <alkaline@...>
 >
 >In the interest of having some kind of traffic on the list, i'll do another
 >word poll. People seem to like talking about their own languages :)

        Like talking about your pets, or your own children, I
suppose. :)

 >1. articles like in english

        Gone, gone, gone.  I had the 3rd person pronouns also acting
like definite articles until quite recently.  However, once I starting
thinking about "the" and got a list similar to the one you gave below,
I took a deep breath, and excised it from Vaior.  I was using it less
and less anyway, and I really didn't want to deal with specifying when
and when not to use it.  So, "the" is gone.  "A/an" never existed as a
separate form.

 >THE:
 >
 >TA. a certain one being spoken of/already mentioned (introduced by AA).

        Doesn't exist.

 >TB. hypothetical instance of (introduced by AB).

        Nor does this.

 >TC. the one and only (geographic/environmental/locational)

        Nope.

 >TD. the one identified by/as (the modifier of the noun)
 >-the man who answered (as opposed to the one who ignored his phone)

        This is a little trickier.  The "definite" use of the pronoun
lingered for a certain small set of uses, similar to Greek:
nominalizing.  So, "the one(s) who."  In this use, though, you omit
the noun:

        na    rav-o-th
        "the" answer-PRES-PART.

This could mean "the man/woman which answered."  You can use this with
other sorts of adjectives and prepositional phrases:

        nir      an aldove-sse
        "the-PL" in house-LOC   - "those in the house"

 >TE. an integral part or clothing of the obvious entity (possessives can also
 >be used for these in english)

        None.

 >TF. that which is present/close, as opposed to remote

        "This."  Vaior uses "this" quite a lot, even where English
might use "that."

 >TG. the one designated/named. related to NC.

        None.

 >TH. the one considered the best, most fashionable (usually emphasized)
 >-That is *the* restaurant in town.

        My goodness.  You'd have to say "popular" or something
similar.

 >TI. specified period of time

        None.

 >TJ. taken as a representative of the entire genus or type

        There is a genericising (?) mass-noun creator for this in
Vaior, -ai-:

        espaufossi rhonaie
        espauf-o-ssi  rhon-ai-e
        easy-PRES-EXP man-CLASS-N
        "men are easy"

Note that '-ssi' indicates the speaker is reporting from direct
experience and 'rhon' means specifically "male humans" not
generallically "all humans" in the English sense "men" is sometimes
used in.  By the way, this was said by a lesbian friend after she
turned bi, and discovered the ease with which many men are seduced :)

 >TK. for an adjective used as a noun

        See above to TD for this.

 >A/AN,SOME:

        Again, most of these will not be expressed in Vaior.  If you
really need to say "a certain" you just use the "some-, any-" row of
the correlatives.

 >NB: generalizations, applying to all the members of a type of
 >object/concept.

        See above for the generalizing affix.

        Well, this list was less alarming to me than the "for"
discussion. :)

--
wm