Re: Number in Trentish

On Thursday 13 December 2001 16:14, you wrote:
> I noticed this kind of English sentence:
>
>     There are mice in the house.
>     There are mice in the corner.
>
> And, just for the sake of evil, felt like disambiguating them.
>
> "What's to disambiguate?" you say!  Well, when we talk about 'mice
> in the house', we don't place them anywhere, so long as they're in
> there: there could be mice in my sock drawer, grandma's chest in
> the attic, and at the computer desk.  But with 'mice in the
> corner', we place them together.  (The only reason for this is
> because the meaning of 'corner' makes it necessary--and the example
> easier.)
You wouldn't say "There are some mice in the house" either, but you
would say "There are some mice in the corner".

[snip!]

I like it!

Ilaini does something slightly like this with the collective plural,
but I've encountered only one case in which the *form* is different
as well (apart from being the collective-plural form that keeps -i-
in all cases where the normal plural has -e- in some):

pistyn - (a) louse
pistyin - lice-B (some lice, individual lice)
pishin - lice-A (an infestation of lice)

The third is, of course, the worn-down form of the second.

   Irina

--
irina@valdyas.org                        http://www.valdyas.org/irina
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