person marking on relative pronouns
| From: | René Uittenbogaard <ruittenb@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, April 7, 2006, 23:21 |
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Hello all,
This week a francophone friend of mine pointed out that in French, you
have to say
C'est moi qui _vais_ faire ça.
It is me who.NOM go.1SG do that.
Note that _vais_ is 1SG.
The English version has either _is_ (3SG) or _am_ (1SG) following the
relative pronoun - according to Google:
it is I who is going to - 92 hits
it is I who am going to - 171 hits.
Dutch however:
Ik ben het die niet getrouwd is.
I am.1SG it who not married is.3SG.
Apparently "who" refers to "it" here.
Ik, die niet getrouwd ben, ga niet mee.
I, who not married am.1SG, go.1SG not along.
It reminded me of a line in a song I heard a while ago:
Gott, der Du unser Vater bist, ..
God.VOC who you.2SG our father are.2SG, ..
This excerpt from German has both a relative pronoun and a personal
pronoun in the subclause. Not an ugly solution at all, IMHO.
What other methods are there to mark relative pronouns for person - in
nat- and conlangs?
René
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