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Re: Noun-verb agreement

From:Padraic Brown <pbrown@...>
Date:Thursday, November 11, 1999, 2:54
You could set up a system of classifiers by which the nouns are given
categories based on the verbs they are associated with.  Example
(exclusive of tones):=20

=09ma-ringo-nara gua-dang-busho-er ma-dang-ring-luo; a ma-er-nara
=09gua-wo-dakdak-er ma-dang-busho-luo a.

=09The cue ball struck the object ball; which went into the
=09pocket.

=09dang-ring =3D cue ball (ball of driving)
=09dang-busho =3D object ball (ball of objectivity)
=09wo-dakdak =3D pocket, basket (place of nuts)
=09ringo =3D drive

=09ma- =3D wheel classifier: round objects, objects moving
=09cyclically
=09gua- =3D rock classifier: any object at rest

=09-luo =3D primary object relational
=09-er =3D secondary object relational
=09-nara =3D atemporal time (time unspecified)

Note that dang-busho changes from gua- to ma- (static to motive) when
it is now the subject of a verb of (circular) motion.=20

The blow by blow action:

[round class action]-action of striking-[atemporal] [at rest class
object]-objectball-[secondary relational] [round class
object]-cueball-[primary relational]; [open dependant clause] [round
class action]-action of going-[atemporal] [at rest class
object]-pocket-[secondary relational] [round class object]-objectball-
[primary relational] [close dependant clause]

Padraic.

On Wed, 10 Nov 1999, FFlores wrote:

>I have a question: how do nouns agree with verbs, besides >the usual stuff (person and number)? Do you know of langs >that use different pronouns for different kinds of verbs? >Because I've discovered, to my dismay, that Nolt Lethris, >the Old Tongue (ancestor of Drasel=E9q) seems to have this >kind of agreement; pronouns (maybe clitic ones, but indeed >free at some point) that include a consonant, as an affix or >infix, which varies according to the verb. These pronouns >are also marked for tense, I guess like Teonaht does, and >in later history their position becomes fixed (postverbal) >and even later they merge with the verb. For example: > > ndar=E1s tuyerhe (>> modern _drast=FCer_) > cross 2p.PST > 'you crossed' > >The past tense is here marked by the preffix <-uy->; _t-erhe_ >is the pronoun root. But if the verb is of another declension: > > tese buyerhe (>> modern _tesb=FCer_) > lie 2p.PST > 'you lied' > >Here the pronoun root is _b-erhe_. It's not just a matter of >leaving the consonant on the verb, since the phonotactics doesn't >allow it most times, and the positions could be reversed (tensed >pronoun first, and then the verb). This characteristic consonant >doesn't appear (at this stage) in finite forms of the verb (though >it does appear in the infinitive and participles). It doesn't seem >to have any semantic meaning (though it could have had one, in >earlier times). Plus (forgot to mention) it appears not only as >a prefix to the 'real' pronominal root (here, _erhe_), but also >as an *infix* sometimes! > >What can I do? Help please! > > >--Pablo Flores > http://draseleq.conlang.org/pablo-david/ >