> From: Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
> Subject: Re: feature name help (also re: conlang digest 21-22 mar)
>
> > It goes something like this: the inflected verb form becomes a new
> > stem with a suffix in -c (/ts/) or -s (/S/) depending on the ending.
And
> > the meaning is basically "the act of Subject Verbing". The basic
parallel
> > construction in English is a possessive pronoun and an -ing form ('my
> > doing' this, 'his misunderstanding' that), although I think the Hadwan
might
> > be more flexibly used, perhaps adjectivally: "The ghost of the woman
_he
> > had murdered_"
>
> So you take the form inflected for person and tense as a stem?
Yup...
For an example of the second use,
The man you were dreaming about has left.
would be constructed in Hadwan something like this:
leave.PERF.INTR-3SG man.DAT-SG
about-dream-INF.AOR.TR-2SG.DVRB.DAT-SG
(where the phrase 'you were dreaming about' becomes a complicated adjective:
"your dreamed-about")
The ending on that ("aor-tr-2sg-dvrb-dat-sg") would be something like
"-siróci:" [-s-iro-c-i:].
I _think_ it works that way. I don't know how reasonable/certain that is
for sure. Also I don't know whether this use follows from the main use, or
should (for whatever semantic/structural reason) be classified as something
else entirely.
Er, anyway, for the basic sense, which I'm more certain of:
Your incessant lying is a constant pain.
lie-INF.AOR.TR-2SG.DVRB.NOM incessant.NOM be.3SG pain.NOM constant.NOM
[Irregular copula 'to be' verb doesn't follow "intransitive" forms.]
(I really need to work on vocabulary, so I can really illustrate these
examples...)
> > What would yall call that? (Other than 'a bad idea'...)
>
> Tha's not a bad idea at all! And it looks like it solves very nicely the
problem
> of handling relative clauses (can this deverbal form take object
complements?).
Er, well, I have no idea what that last bit means per se.
Can I get an example sentence to work with?
> Why not "gerund" or "gerundive"? (I don't know which one corresponds
better,
> since French doesn't make a difference between the gerund and the
gerundive:
> they're both called "gérondif") Or "gerundive mood"? It seems to
correspond
> quite well to the meaning of your derivation...
Well, I recognize the proximity to a gerund, although I couldn't really find
any reference to gerunds inflecting for person, so I was wondering if there
might be a more descriptive name.
I *think* there is a 'normal' gerund in the verb already, but I'm not sure
(I may have it confused with an infinitive).
But I could go with 'gerundive', if that gives an implication of something
gerund-like...
Now it's late and I'm forgetting how to think clearly. Ook...
*Muke!
--
lobster sticks to magnet?