Re: Articles: A new Article?

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Akhilesh Pillalamarri <valardil@Y...>
wrote:

> This is where the new article comes in. For example, when one is
saying "I like chocolate" they are saying they like choclate in
general. Since the article-less word in aryezi indicates "A" or "One",
I had to invent a new article to indicate an item in general. E. Hence
Se ja E hlolar = I have food (in general). Se dila coklat = I like A
chocolate, and Se dila E coklat = I like choclate.
>
> Please comment on this, and tell me how good(or bad) this is. It
might even have a name, but I dont know.

My (interrelated) conlangs Obrenje and Oro Mpaa don't have any
articles, but they have quantifiers ("all", "none", "some",
"two" etc) which are used in an article-like fashion.  One of
those quantifiers is what I call the categorical.  An example
in Obrenje:

|Tanaqze i warve.| {NEG:like:1 OBJ dog}
"I dislike A (certain) dog."

|Tanaqze i na warve.| {NEG:like:1 OBJ all dog}
"I dislike ALL dogs."

|Tanaqze i ny warve.| {NEG:like:1 OBJ CAT dog}
"I dislike dogs IN GENERAL."

In the last sentence, |ny| is the categorical quantifier.

I don't know whether any natlangs have such a thing (though
I'd expect at least one to have it), and neither do I know
what a true linguist would call it.



-- Christian Thalmann