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Re: Syntax in an Ebisedic language

From:H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
Date:Saturday, April 5, 2003, 20:20
On Sat, Apr 05, 2003 at 09:58:16AM -0500, Christopher Wright wrote:
> Bama. > > I've yet another project, but the only reason I approach now is to gain > the advice and pilfer the experience of many far wiser than me. > > The cases I have are originative, essive (I think that's the right word; > used as "to"), beneficient, genitive, and locative. I hope that they do > not mirror too greatly your cases, H.S. Teoh.
I don't mind, copy Ebisedian as much as you want. :-)
> I'll try to keep them different (read: more rational ;))), but I won't > discuss Wirt'an much anyway. It isn't my love...yet.
Oh, Ebisedian is quite rational... just not in the way most languages are. :-P
> My question was one of word order. How would I arrange sentences? Based on > what? The cases used can change based on the relationship emphasized[1], > so the cases themselves would likely be useless for this. Perhaps it is > accusative or ergative in word order but totally alien in cases?
[snip] Uh... what exactly is "accusative word order"? Accusative languages exhibit all kinds of word orders; nothing about its accusativity demands a particular word order. But as far as "Ebisedic" languages go... I am currently planning that one of Ebisedian's descendant langs would be topic-fronted, independently of case. So the noun you want to emphasize would come first, then the verb, then the other nouns. Currently, Ebisedian already exhibits this behaviour to a little bit, but it is still free word order generally speaking. I'm also considering using trigger marking in another of Ebisedian's daughter langs... >:-) Believe it or not, this will actually make it closer to any natlang than it currently is. :-P T -- Only boring people get bored. -- JM