Re: Polysynth Question

On 4/2/07, Jeffrey Jones <jsjonesmiami@...> wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:47:13 -0600, Dirk Elzinga <dirk.elzinga@...>
> wrote:
> >
> >The next sentence is part of a longer story that I've posted here
> >before. It illustrates the lexical and directional suffixes in use.
> >
> >isea kaasuptekateka asewekenki yunanai weppeptekatekahu i aukai
> >
> >n- sea kaasu -pte -ka -teka a= se- -ek- wenki
> >TR- out.of remove:U -eye -UN -DIST DS= 3POSS- -COLL- eye
> >
> >yu= n- anai weppe -pte -ka -teka -hu i a= ukai
> >AND= TR- upwards throw:U -eye -UN -DIST -away.from OBL DS= sky
> >
> >'they were taking out their eyes and throwing them up into the air'
>
> Sorry -- I've been having trouble understanding the longer sentence. I don't
> see any personal prefixes or switch-reference markers. Or is 3rd person
> unmarked? And is the 3rd person used after AND even when it's the same
> subject?
Yes, the third person is unmarked. The switch reference markers are
the proclitics e= 'same subject' (no examples in these sentences) and
a= 'different subject'. There is also a transitive marker n-. When
present, the first person clitic wa= is interpreted as first person
acting on third person; the second person clitic ku= is interpreted as
second person acting on third person. The clitic le= is used only in
transitive predicates and indicates second person acting on first
person. The possessive prefix se- is used to mark third person
possession and the experiencer of "psych" predicates--predicates of
sensory perception or mental activity (love, think, etc). A psych
predicate is generally intransitive; the formal subject of a psych
predicate is the theme.

Dirk

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