Re: possessor

On 4/23/05, # 1 <salut_vous_autre@...> wrote:> Today, I tought of something, even
if I'm not actually planning to use it in> a conlang> > Are there languages in
which a verb can agree wich the possessor of a> nominal phrase?> > Like if in a
sentence as: "My cat eats your mouse", the verb "eat" would> agree in first
person with the subject's possessor or in second person with> the object's
possessor
If find your wording kind of confusing here, but I do think that Iknow what you're after.
> [snip]> So:> > gul kabin hude = the cat eats the mouce> cat eat mouse> > gul jekabin
> hude = the cat eats my mouse> cat 3rd-eat mouse> > gul gekabinje hude = my
> cat eats your mouce> cat 2nd-eat-1st mouse
What these remind me of more than anything is a use of the dativethat's common in
Greek and Romanian and many other languages. Thepossessor of the object of the
phrase in these languages is oftenexpressed through the dative case, so you say
in Romanian
Eu îţi leg papuciiI you-DAT tie the-shoes"I tie your shoes."
Over time the dative pronoun could easily fuse with the verb (and inRomanian it's
already a verbal clitic), giving rise to what youdescribe.
Problems are that (1) I've only ever heard of this being done with thepossessor of the
object, and (2) it seems to only make sense if theverb also agrees in the
normal manner with its subject and/or object.(2) is probably just an artifact
of the languages I know that dothis--I can't think of an a priori reason not to
have this be the onlyform of agreement.
-- JS Bangsjaspax@gmail.comhttp://jaspax.com
"I could buy you a drinkI could tell you all about itI could tell you why I
doubtedAnd why I still believe." - Pedro the Lion

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