Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Constructive linguistics-Cinje pronouns

From:Jim Grossmann <jimg4732@...>
Date:Tuesday, February 22, 2005, 20:38
Dave's material is in <<quotes>>.

<<If I'm understanding you correctly, this would mandate the following:

(1) The man(i) told his (i) sister that he(i) wouldn't be caught dead
talking to his(i) cousin.

In the above sentence, everything marked with (i) would be deleted
except for 'the man'?>>

JG:   Yes, that's correct.   In my old deletion scheme, "his" would have
been realized as a postposition meaning "of" minus its object.

<<Could you site a Tokana example similar to this?>>

JG:  (from Matt Pearson's Tokana at http://mpearson.narod.ru/tok.toc.html .)

Inai    Hane    iona moutanne
the:Dat Han-Dat know sick-Dep-he:NA
"Han knows that he (i.e. someone else) is sick"

Inai    Hane    iona moutat
the:Dat Han-Dat know sick-Dep
"Han knows that he (i.e. Han) is sick"

....................
Now, in my own Cinje (still under construction), sentence (1) would work
something like this...

subject pronoun = ce'

(1'') The man(i) told ce'-genitive sister that ce' wouldn't be caught dead
talking to the ce'-genitive cousin.

But suppose we were talking about someone else's cousin.  Then the second
genitive pronoun would have to be different.

subject pronoun = ce'
3rd person animate singular non-subject pronoun = raef'

(1''')  The man (i) told ce'-genitive sister that ce' would not be caught
talking to raef' cousin.

Here's another example that shows more non-subject pronouns...

subject pronoun = ce'
3rd person animate singular non-subject pronoun = raef'
3rd person instrumental singular non-subject pronoun = beaj
3rd person inanimate singular non-subject pronoun = naet

(2)	Dave ordered Mike to take a shovel and bury the rock, but raef'  told
ce' to eat beaj' and naet'.

i.e. 	Dave ordered Mike to take a shovel and bury the rock, but Mike told
Dave to eat the shovel and the rock.

note:

o	The animate pronouns refer to beings.
o	The instrumental pronouns refer to forces, biological structures, tools,
instruments, 	implements, and machines.
o	The inanimate pronouns refer to everything else.


Jim