Re: Using Case to Show Tense

On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 17:25:59 -0500, Patrick Littell <puchitao@...> wrote:

> FUT                 a     a     p
Typo here; should be "a a n".

> I wonder what would happen when a speaker *actually* needed to use
> passive voice?  I'd have to think about this one for a bit...
A solution: one could have PASS and APASS verb affixes, but only use
them when then sentence really has passive or antipassive meaning.  If
the nouns are in the PASS/APASS case paradigms but the verb lacks
PASS/APASS affixes, it's expressing aspect rather than voice.

Further complication: How, then, does one tell PAST passives from PAST
PERF passives?  Both would have the PASS affix and cases, because
they're really passive, but then how is PERF distinguished?  And how
would one handle PAST PERF antipassives?  That would require the PASS
*and* APASS voices at once.

A solution: Since passives and antipassives are intransitives, treat
them like it.  Use the solution mentioned before: add a "dummy"
reflective affix to an intransitive verb to make it transitive -- say,
with an emphatic meaning -- and then add voice to *that*.

1.
FUT INTR: He-a dance.  "He will dance."
FUT REFL: He-a himself-n dance-REF.  "He himself will dance."
FUT PERF: He-i himself-a dance-REF.  "He will have danced."

2.
FUT TRAN: He-a nose-n tap.  "He will tap his nose."
FUT PASS: (He-i) nose-a tap-PASS.  "His nose will be tapped (by him)."
FUT PASS REFL: (He-i) nose-a itself-n tap-PASS-REF.  "His very own
nose will be tapped (by him)."
FUT PASS PERF: (He-i) nose-i itself-a tap-PASS-REF.  "His nose will
have been tapped (by him)."

Non-reflexive oblique objects can, in happy oblique tradition, be
omitted without ambiguity, but it turns out that leaving out "nose-i"
would lead to the listener being unable to properly deduce the aspect.
 Maybe a doubly case-marked "nose-i-a" would shorten it up a bit.

That's plenty for me today.  Any more and my mind will melt.  Thanks
for the mental exercise,
--
Patrick Littell
PHIL205: MWF 2:00-3:00, M 6:00-9:00
Voice Mail: ext 744
Spring 05 Office Hours: M 3:00-6:00

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