Re: Interrogative mood (Re: Hello...)

Patric Dunn wabbe:

> On Tue, 14 Nov 2000, Carlos Thompson wrote:
>
> > negative, interrogative, irrealis, potencial and imperative.
>
> could you give us an outline of how these are used?
  Gij flerda pé dimbe el   -- I burned the house
  Gij flerda ár dimbe el   -- I didn't burn the house
  Cij flerda gij dimbe el  -- Did I burn the house?
  Gij flerda eh dimbe el   -- (if) I had burned the house
  Gij flerda s`yn dimbe el -- (then) I would've burned the house
  Flerda dimbe el      -- Burn the house! ... or
  Flerda gij mev dimbe el  -- May I burn the house

  gij /gi:/ : first person (number unmarked, singular assumed)
  flerda /fle:d`I/ : burn (imperfect)
  dimbe /dimbI/ : house (singular)
  el /l=/ : definite article for real innanimate.
  pé /pe:/ : positive indicative past tense.
  ár /A:r`/ : negative indicative past tense.
  cij /ki:/ : interrogative past tense.
  eh /E?/ : irrealis past tense.
  s`yn /syn:/ : potencial past tense.
  mev /m9Y/ : imperative present

Note that in the interrogative sentence the interrogative word (in
this case the modal) is fronted, but a sentense like "gij flerda cij
dimbe el" is a valid question, as well as "gij flerda mev dimbe el" is
a valid justive.

Positive and negative indicatives are self explanatory, I guess.
Interrogative mood is used for yes/not questions.  Informative
questions would probably use any of the indicatives.  Present positive
indicative can be left out when the subject is fronted.

The irrealis (only positive), is used for marking something that is
untrue but is taken as true, for example in the premise of a
conditional clause.  The potential (only positive), is used for
marking something that would be true according to certain conditions.

Unmarked imperative (no modal and no pronoun) is used as English
imperative.  Marked imperative (using mev, má, mé) would also be used
as justive or strong volitive (I want that...).

Note that irrealis, potential and imperative are always positive
(assumed that is true, would be true, I want to be true).  For
negative irrealis, potential and imperative an auxiliary verb is used:
"ran" /rAn/.  "ran" is used as finite verb (would conjugate after
aspect), with the main verb in unmarked form in the object position:

  Gij ran eh flerda dimbe el   -- (if) I hadn't burned the house
  Gij ran s`yn flerda dimbe el -- (then) I wouldn't have burned the
house
  Ran flerda dimbe el      -- Don't burn the house!
  Ran gij mev flerda dimbe el  -- May not I burn the house

-- Carlos Th