John Fisher wrote:
> In message <376C6AD9.DF584C90@...>, Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> writes
> >Matthew Kehrt wrote:
> >> I once had a system where all perpositions were verbs:
> >> (The cat) (is) (on the shelf.)
> >> becomes:
> >> (The cat) (is on) (the shelf).
> >Those could be handled by
> >serial verbs or similar constructions, no? Say, "The cat is lying on
> >the shelf" would be "The cat is-on the shelf, lying"
> Elet Anta has verbs like these, which are tacked onto the end of nouns:
>
> The-cat shelf-is-on
Some languages use verbs and no (or few) prepositions.
Then these samples could expose a syntactic ambiguity:
I pay the-cashier to-buy the-book.
N1 V1 N2 V2 N3 <--- N1 V2's the N3
I pay the-writer to-write the-book.
N1 V1 N2 P2 N3 <--- N2 P2's the N3
I have been using verb roots as prepositions by just changing
the suffix to indicate this. So the second V2 becomes P2;
this seems either correct or 180 degrees off. ???