Re: Accusative? The saga continues ...

#
# Maoro mentu a dazuo nalu.
# [mao;ro mentu a dazu;o na;lU]
# "Maoro burns a spaceship in the den"
# (slightly unlikely, perhaps)
#
# Maoro a dazuo nala.
# "Maoro burns (intr) in the den."
#

I see two different (differently marked?) verbs here...

   nala - burn (intrans)
   nalu - burn (trans)

Is one verb derived from the other, or is there a stem 'nal-' plus an
obligatory transitivity marker?

# Know, I figure these sentences aren't enough to tell if it's accusative or
# whatever, but at least you've seen the thing.
#

I can't remember much of the previous thread concerning this, but is it your
intent to be ambiguous with respect to accusative or ergative?

I can think of some good arguments for either, but all are conditional on
further data... dropping of nouns which are understood, in trans and intrans
contexts? reflexives? valency increasing or decreasing mechanisms? (causative,
passive..)

I think maybe "transitive/intransitive" would be a good classification.

-tim

http://www.zece.com/conlang/