Core-case roles
| From: | Jim Grossmann <steven@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, August 13, 2002, 4:17 |
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In my conlang, Nu, transitive verbs have an obligatory argument called a
"medium," which usually stands for an instrument. (I invented the term
"medium" to create a syntactic term for the obligatory complement, which
stands for an instrument with most verbs but a patient with dative verbs.)
from my grammar...
5.2 TYPICAL MEDIUMS: With most verbs, the medium stands for an instrument
or a part of the agent.
a) In the Nu translation of an English sentence with an instrumental
subject, the noun phrase corresponding to that subject becomes the medium,
and a subject that stands for the agent must be included. So, for example,
Nu doesn’t have sentences like “The axe killed the pig.” Subject and
instrument are both included in the sentence.
5.2-1a zila / bi / sta / cifi / fpore.
woman / past / kill / axe / pig.
The woman killed the pig with an axe.
b) The verb suffix “-klue” can move the medium to initial position, creating
a closer equivalent to English sentences with instrumental subjects.
5.2-1b cifi / bi / staklue / zila / fpore.
axe / past / kill-klue / woman / pig.
The axe (the woman used) killed the pig.
The axe is what the woman killed the pig with.
Jim G.