Description question
| From: | Muke Tever <alrivera@...> | 
| Date: | Sunday, October 7, 2001, 0:26 | 
Okay, in my new conlang Dunamy I have sentences like this (morphemes
separated by periods):
    gges.i tak.s ara gae
    chase  dog   ?   cat
    "The dog chases the cat."
    pi.ggés gae.s ara tak
    chase   dog   ?   cat
    "The cat is chased by the dog."
[<Ara> is a word that marks 'gae' as the patient in the first sentence and
'tak' as the agent in the second.  Also the acute in <piggés> is just a
spelling change to mark that the pronunciation remains the same.]
This looks like active and passive but that doesn't seem quite right.  Is
there a better way to describe this?  And what do I call <ara>?
***
Also,
    gges.i tak.s ara gae
    chase  dog   ?   cat
    "The dog chases the cat."
    gges.i tak.uz ara gae
    chase  dog    ?   cat
    "The dog chased the cat."
    gges.i tak.api ara gae
    chase  dog     ?   cat
    "The dog will chase the cat."
[The same can work in the other construction:
    pi.ggés gae.uz ara tak
    chase   cat    ?   dog
    "The cat was chased by the dog."
The tense is marked on the subject.]
How common is it for nouns to be the carrier of tense like this?
    *Muke!
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