Matt McLauchlin wrote:
>I can also construct a sentence like so:
>
>Teuc ian.
>teuc-Ø | ia-n
>love 3pSgPrSim | I abs
>"(Someone) loves me."
>
>And I can go so far as to do this:
>
>Ian teuc.
>ia-n | teuc-Ø
>I abs | love 3pSgPrSim
>"I am loved."
What does "Sim" mean?
>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.
I don't see where your problem is, actually. The verb does appear to agree
with the subject in all your sentences. You don't say "someone", but the
verb still agrees with it. The only difference between the last two
sentences is word order. The meaning between the two is not that extreme
-- it is not unheard of for indefinite subjects to evolve into passives.
>Is there anything wrong with doing this, i.e. does it violate some
>universal rule I haven't heard of?
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Marcus Smith
AIM: Anaakoot
"When you lose a language, it's like
dropping a bomb on a museum."
-- Kenneth Hale
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