Daimyo verbs

Muke Tever wrote:

>
> I figured that I could throw out the notion of verb tense, and replaced it
> with something like Whorf's description of 'assertion' in Hopi, but not
> quite.
>
> A verb can be in either of two tense/assertions (anyone who can supply
> better names, for the category or the individuals, please feel free!)
>
> - 'gnostic', for things that the speaker knows:
>       the visible (known present),
>       that in one's own thoughts,
>       the planned (known future),
>       remembered history (known past)
> - 'agnostic', for things that are the speaker does not know:
>       the unseen (unknown present),
>       other's thoughts,
>       the unplanned (unknown future),
>       forgotten history (unknown past).
>
> So, say, instead of:
>
>      -John is coming Thursday.        [present/future]
>      -Are you angry with me?          [present]
>      -He is holding a cat.            [present]
>      -The house may have burnt down.  [present/past]
>      -I don't know the answer.        [present]
>      -Loose lips sink ships.          [present/timeless]
>
> One might do:
>
>      John comes.GN Thursday       [known]
>      You are angry.AGN with me?   [unknown]
>      He holds.GN a cat            [known]
>      The house burns down.AGN     [unknown]
>      I know.GN not the answer     [unknown]
>      Loose lips sink.GN ships     [known]
>
> Note that one can know one doesn't know something.  Also, the Daimyoish
> structure of the 'angry' sentence would likely be much different (emotion
> verbs will probably have to behave differently here) but it'd still be AGN.
>
> What do you think, sirs?  Is this feasible?
>
>      *Muke!
> --
> http://muke.twu.net/
I like it. Its nice to see a change from the usual tense system. And it
seems perfectly reasonable to me, although I'm not a professional.

I was thinking about something similar for a language I'm working on. In
my case I was thinking about a change to the stem for a
certain/uncertain distinction onto which various aglutinative endings
would be piled. Thus I would get things like:

John comes(certain)-future Thursday.    John and I have agreed plans.
John comes(uncertain)-future Thursday   John might drop by.

The house burned(certain)-past down.    I saw it.
The house burned(uncertain)-past down.  I've heard a rumor.

A tree falls(uncertain)-present-indicative in the forest.
                        And no one is there to hear if it makes a sound.


I'm interseted to see what you do with it.

David.