Re: USAGE: Miapimoquitch directionals
| From: | Dirk Elzinga <dirk_elzinga@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, June 16, 2003, 22:30 |
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On Monday, June 16, 2003, at 03:43 PM, Tim May wrote:
> Dirk Elzinga wrote at 2003-06-16 12:39:28 (-0600)
>> On Monday, June 16, 2003, at 12:00 PM, Tim May wrote:
>>
> [...]
>>> What's the point of reference of these directionals?
>>
>> The point of reference is contextually determined in the discourse.
>> Typically it will be the speaker, so that _taka-si_ will refer to
>> motion towards the speaker and _taka-hu_ will refer to motion away
>> from the speaker. However, in narratives this will change since the
>> narrator isn't always involved in the events being described. Right
>> now I have the impression that it isn't really much different than
>> English. For example, how do you know when to use 'come' and 'go'
>> when telling a story? I assume the same mechanisms will govern the
>> choice of directionals in Miapimoquitch. It's a question that I
>> haven't thought a lot about yet, but I knew that I didn't want a
>> system with absolute directionals (i.e., orienting events or
>> entities along compass points exclusively).
>>
>
> Ah, very good. It's my impression, though, that the contextual
> meaning of such terms varies quite a lot cross-linguistically, so
> there probably are some differences from English, even if the general
> scheme is similar.
Right. However, the differences will only become apparent when larger
chunks of discourse become available (i.e., I write them). Until then,
the specifics will have to remain undecided.
> See e.g. the section headed "Deixis and the verbs 'to go' and 'to
> come'" on this page here,
>
http://www.yale.edu/nahuatl/lessons/mainle04.html
> which talks about the differences in use between English, Spanish and
> Nahuatl (you have to scroll down)u. It's not a terribly good source,
> but I had it bookmarked.
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