Re: A Survey
| From: | Estel Telcontar <estel_telcontar@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, October 1, 2003, 0:24 |
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--- Rob Haden wrote:
> I'm curious to see everyone's answers to the following questions:
>
> 1. Does your language(s) distinguish between active ("X breaks Y"),
> middle
> ("X breaks (apart)"), and passive ("X is broken (by Y)")?
Ikanirae Seru distinguishes active and passive. Not sure yet about
middle.
> 2. If the answer to #1 was "yes," what method(s) does your
> language(s) use
> to make some/all of the above distinctions?
active:
X kotisa Y a
X break Y .
"X breaks Y"
Passive: the word "ho", which normally means "get, receive" is added
before the verb, and the preposition "toma", meaning "from", is added
to the agent if it is present.
Y ho kotisa (toma X) a
Y get break (from X) .
"Y gets breaking (from X)/ Y is broken (by X)"
> 3. What method(s) does your language(s) use to distinguish between
> basic nouns and verbs of the same root (i.e. "a hit" vs. "he hits")?
Very often, nothing.
"seru" = say, speak, speech, language
Estel
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