Re: Aelya Verbal System

At 08:42 26/01/00 -0700, you wrote:
>
>    Does anyone have a 4th person in their lang? Is having a 4th person in
the
>conjugation a good thing? I keep flip flopping on it.
>
        It depends on what you mean by a "4th person". And in any case I can think
of, there are con- and natlang precedents, so it's perfectly possible to
have a 4th person. It can be:
- impersonal construction (like the 'it' in "it is raining")
- French "on" (I would call it also impersonal, but that's not the same
thing, as "on" can well be a person :) )
- other 3rd person (for subclauses, like in "he wants him to go out" where
the 'he' and the 'him' refer to different people, and are in some languages
different persons), I don't remember the technical name for it (resumptive?)
- inclusive 'we' vs. exclusive 'we' (technically not a 4th person, rather a
splitting of the 1rd person plural)

        You see, you can do many things with a 4th person. :) Just find what you
like :) .

                                                        Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"Reality is just another point of view."

homepage : http://rainbow.conlang.org