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Re: Case Terminology Question

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Monday, July 28, 2003, 11:06
How about the appositive case?  What you're describing looks
to me like the "naming" noun is being used as an appositive.

On Mon, Jul 28, 2003 at 04:07:57AM +0200, Harald Stoiber wrote:
> Hello, may you all enjoy this day! :-)) > > Slowly and carefully I get things settled with my current conlang > al-Nurah. The name may sound Arabic to you although the language > has nothing significant in common with Arabic except the idea of > tri-consonantic roots and the definite article "al". ;-) > > Now the introduction to my question... > > Al-Nurah has two ways of describing the attributes of a noun. For the > difference to become clear I will supply instructive English examples: > "the great Alexander" vs. "Alexander the Great" > > In my conlang the first example means that a certain "Alexander" is > addressed and is described as being great. But his greatness is not > required to identify him. It's just an information about him and maybe > not even a significant one - like we can somehow call a cloth > "green" even if it has only one tiny green spot on it. Whereas in the > second example an "Alexander" is addressed which can be > identified among all Alexanders because he is the great one. To > specify the additional information in the first example al-Nurah > would simply use the adjective "great" before "Alexander". > > The second example will be expressed via a "naming case", > which supplies an additional "name" for its referent. In the case > of "Alexander" we give him the additional name "the Great". > So, preceding "Alexander" there would be the noun "great one" > in the naming case. The naming case is put on the distinguishing > marks within the category of the reference noun. In the above > example: Among everybody who is an Alexander we pick the > one who is also great - who is of relevant greatness among all > Alexanders in question. Thus, we can safely give him the > distinguishing sobriquet "the great". > > Now to the heart of my question: > > Looking at the above example I decided that it's all about > giving additional names to a referent in order to narrow the > number of entities it addresses. Since it's somehow about > naming I temporarily called the case "nominative case" but > I am not satisfied since this term is actually occupied by a > totally different linguistic concept as you and I know. So, > I am very very grateful for any better terms you may have > for this. Can you help me out with one? Please! Thank you! :-))) > > Cheers, > Harald > > -- > A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. > (Rabindranath Tagore)