On Sat, 10 Oct 1998 14:07:55 -0300, Pablo Flores
<fflores@...> wrote:
>c) Case markers are prefixed (Carlos and Mathias both proposed
>this, and we the others have stayed silent), so adpositions have to
>be postfixed according to b).
But my proposed system has gender/number prefixes and case suffixes. I =
just
didn't have time to get around to it last night.
>Finally, I think we could begin creating some words... This is
>a big step, but necessary to try these wonderful theorical
>structures we've made up. For my part, here are some (to be
>discarded later, if you want to).
>
>frar- "dog"
>kjak- "bite, bit"
>wiv- "red"
>s- "I, me, first person"
>qaun- "hard, strong"
Examples for some of these might be useful, especially since "hard" and
"strong" have numerous meanings in English.
>Case markers:
>a- agent
>pe- patient
>di- predicate
>ys- undergoer
>mu- modifier
I don't especially like pe- or ys-.
>Other markers:
>-o, -i (dummy gender markers)
>-ul past tense
>-e present tense
>
>_afraro pesi dikjakul_
>a-fraro pe-si di-kjak-ul
>agent-dog patient-I predicate-bite-past
>"The dog bit me"
Iin the case system I proposed that would be:
a-frar-a s-u kjak-ul
the-dog-agent I-patient bite-past
or using -u as a perfective suffix, and putting the tense on the noun:
a-frar-ul-a s-u kjak-u
the-dog-past-agent I-patient bite-perfective
a-frar-a s-ul-u kjak-u
the-dog-agent I-past-patient bite-perfective
>_ysfraro diwive_ or _ysfraro muwive_ ?
>undergoer-dog predicate-red-present or modifier-red-present ?
>"The dog is red"
>
>Is "being red" a real predicate? Or should we use a modifier
>in final (verbal) position to rended the "to be" copula?
Being able to distinguish predicates from modifiers might be useful for
word order flexibility: we could say "the-dog red-modifier" for "the red
dog" without having it be confused for "the dog is red".
>Note that if stems always end in a consonant as we decided,
>at least a postfixed inflection will have to be added in order
>not to produce invalid syllables such as _kjak_ (stops are not
>allowed in syllable-final position). This should be gender for
>nouns, and tense for verbs... at least a generic tense.
or aspect.
>A final example:
>
>jol- "leg"
>la "in" (postp)
(specifically "in" as "location of action", or can it also be used for
"inside"?)
>_afraro jolo la pesi dikjakul_
>"The dog bit me in the leg"
>
>_jolo la_ "in the leg" is before _pesi_ "me" because it's supposed
>to modify it somehow (it's my leg, not anyone else's).