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Re: Genitives NPs as Relative Clauses

From:Muke Tever <alrivera@...>
Date:Thursday, November 15, 2001, 14:15
From: "Keith Gaughan" <kmgaughan@...>
>In my (English) idiolect, it's not uncommon for me to use genitive >constructions >in the place of relative clauses. Example: > > My idiolect: ...of my seeing... > >Ok, here's my question. I've been thinking of adapting this idiom for use in >Erëtas but I have doubts as to its scalability. Are there any other languages >that use similar constructions. Just for reference's sake, here's how I intend >on representing direct and indirect relative clauses: > > Direct relative clause (`that I see'): > ...of my seeing... > > Indirect relative clauses (`that sees me'): > ...with my seeing... > >Thoughts? Could it work well?
Well, such a thing is possible in Hadwan: nirai sci waidjócos /ni"rAI "stsI wAIdzu:"tsos/ nir.ai sci waidj.ó .c .os man.INTR be-3SG see .TR-1SG.GER.GEN "It is the man of my seeing" / "It is the man that I see" I wouldn't be surprised to see it.. As for the other... *nír sci waidjaicidj honj "it is the man with my seeing" / "it is the man that sees me" That doesn't sound right. You might actually say: nirai sci waidjitcos mí /ni"rAI "stsI wAIdzIt"tsos "mi:/ nir.ai sci waidj.ic .c .os mí man.INTR be-3SG see .TR-3SG.GER.GEN me.ACC "it is the man of his seeing me" / "it is the man that sees me" But I'm a little rusty on the grammar to be sure. *Muke!

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Keith Gaughan <kmgaughan@...>