Re: Trigger language?

On Mon, Jan 20, 2003 at 10:43:18PM +0100, vaksje wrote:
> H. S. Teoh wrote:
>
> > Basically, there are five noun cases.  They are the
> > originative (org), the receptive (rcp), the instrumental
> > (instr), the conveyant (cvy), and the locative (loc).
>
> My language doesn't have any case similar to the originative, but I do
> have the others (conveyant and receptive are nice names BTW). The verb
> "tell" when used ditransitively in my conlang uses a system that might
> be compared to yours.
>
> (example) subject tell someone(cvy) something(rcp)
>
> Does Ebisedian have a similar construction with this verb?
Ebisedian handles this differently, because it has no concept of subject
or object:
        Man(org) tell(v) something(cvy) someone(rcp)
        "The man told something to someone."

The hearer of the message is not in "motion" (metaphoric or physical)
relative to the action of the verb; so it cannot be in the conveyant case.
It is the message itself which is being conveyed from the speaker to the
hearer; hence it must be in the conveyant case.

OTOH, consider the following case:
        man(org) turn(v) someone(cvy) something(rcp)
        "The man turns someone towards something".

Here, the "someone" is being directed towards the "something". So
"someone" is conveyant, whereas "something" is receptive. I guess you may
say the conveyant case is sorta like a patient case. Note also that this
sentence may equally validly be understood as "someone turns away from the
man towards something".

It may help to understand that Ebisedian verbs behave like a "subject";
everything is relative to the verb. Whether the man has any degree of
volition is of no consequence; the fact is that the "someone" turns away
from "man", and turns towards "something". (An alternative construct would
be to use the instrumental for "man", although both are acceptable in
Ebisedian.)


T

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