Re: MNCL5

On Sep 21, 2007, at 10:34 PM, Jeffrey Jones wrote:
[snip]
> 5. relational noun stems: the patientive is used for the possessum
> and the
> thematic is used for the possessor; the verb af- "belong to" also
> follows this
> pattern.
>
> Jona Tomok atune. - "John isn't Tom's father."
> Zo hunda Jonok afe. - "The dog belongs to John."
Cool! I'm working on a conlang that does at least some possessive
expressions (e.g. relatives, body parts, maybe houses and other
things) exactly like that, except that it uses ergative and
absolutive. I've been a little concerned though about using the
ergative for the possessum, because it doesn't seem active/agentive
enough to warrant it. I might introduce another case (like your
thematic), but I don't want to complicate the case system that much.

[snip]
> Non-verb Forms
>
> Non-verb forms have a "subject", which is not expressed, and, if not
> monovalent, an "object" (or possessor), which takes the genitive case.
I'm confused by this section. The heading is "non-verb forms" but it
talks mostly about verb stems. Are you talking about nominalizations
or other non-verbal derivatives of verb stems?

Also, are the "subject" and "object" in these forms shown by the
agentive, patientive, and thematic cases? Or do they belong to some
other system?