From: "Matt McLauchlin"
> OK. Lyanjen has verbs that are conjugated for person as well as tense
(like
> Romance languages). For example:
> Iar teuca Áudridan.
> ia-r | teuc-a | Áudrid-an
> I erg | love 1pSgPrSim | Audrid abs
> "I love Audrid."
> Áudridar teuc ian.
> Áudrid-ar | teuc-Ø | ia-n
> Audrid erg | love 3pSgPrSim | I abs
> "Audrid loves me."
> Teuc ian.
> teuc-Ø | ia-n
> love 3pSgPrSim | I abs
> "(Someone) loves me."
> Ian teuc.
> ia-n | teuc-Ø
> I abs | love 3pSgPrSim
> "I am loved."
> Wait a minute... The rule seems to be that the verb doesn't accord with
the
> *subject* of the sentence, but with the *nominative or ergative* in the
> sentence, and defaults to third person singular if no such noun is
present.
> Is there anything wrong with doing this, i.e. does it violate some
> universal rule I haven't heard of?
Since verbs mark person, could explicit ergative pronouns be dropped (like
subject pronouns à la Romance)? In other words, is:
Teuca Áudridan. I love Audrid.
a valid sentence?
How 'bout:
Áudridan teuca . for: Audrid is loved by me. ? (or is it "Audrid, I love."
[not husky Sven]?)
Can:
Teuc ian.
also be interpreted as, "He loves me."?
or do we need an explicit 'he-erg'?
I like the Ian teuc./Teuc ian. split, since they both basically mean the
same thing, but there's a shift in focus. Does it work across the board of
personal pronoun endings?
Kou