Re: Number/Specificality/Archetypes in Language

In a message dated 9/19/04 1:32:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
chris.maths_student@NTLWORLD.COM writes:

<< he archetype itself (perhaps "maleness"?)
 the set of instantiations of the architype ("all men")
 a subset of the complete set
 an individual member of the set ("a/the man")

  And then I started wondering if any languages "number" system actually
 makes this four way distinction... >>
In principle, I intended to be able to indicate roughly these distinctions in
Rihana-ye, though they have not worked out consistently in practice.
The best example that did come out relatively close to what I intended is
derived from
the verb fo (to live).
The form foha (verb root plus noun suffix)  means life in general.
The form fomiha participle plus noun suffix) means "a living body"
The related noun root form fa means "an animal"
The form faha (noun root plus the noun suffix)   means "herd of animals"
John Leland