Thanks a lot, that clears a lot up.
I was pondering for my language and had an interesting idea... All
the languages which I know use Singular and Plural. What if we used
another number, zero. Zero you ask? Right, like none.
I have no pencils.
no pencils would be the zero number.
So this would give me another set of endings for the zero number.
A) Has this been done before?
B) CAN ANYONE THINK OF A BETTER NAME??? ;]
Thanks all
Patrick
At Wednesday, 27 December 2000, you wrote:
>Patrick Jarret wrote:
>
>> >the locative or in the allative case only the last membre of
the phrase
>> >inflects, this because these cases come from pospositional construction
>> >taking the absolutive case:
>>
>> Pardon my naivete but what is the allative case's purpose? Or the
>> absolutive? Is there a good web site covering different cases and
>> their purposes? I know Latin ones, Locative, Ablative, Nominative
>> etc... but these are unknown to me.
>
>Well, the allative (lat.: ad-lativus, from the supine of the verb
ad-ferre,
>'bring to') case's purpose is marking movement toward someone/something.
>I'll give you an exemple in Vaiysi:
>
>yegam talut
>go.1s home.all
>I go home
>
>The ablative (lat. ab-lativus, from ab-ferre) denotes movement *from*
>someone/something. Vaiysi lacks ablative; Latin uses it more as an
>instrumental case when it isn't used with prepositions. In the sentence
>'otio exultas nimiumque gestis' (Catullus, carmen LI b, line 2)
the ablative
>has an instrumental function: 'with idleness'; 'because of idleness'
can be
>another translation which retains a stronger ablative meaning. In the
>sentence 'Varus me meus ad suos amores / visum duxerat e foro otiosum'
>(Catullus, carmen X, lines 1-2) the ablative is used with the preposition
>_e(x)_, and retains its original meaning.
>
>On to absolutive...
>
>Languages can have different case systems. Latin uses a system called
>accusative: the subject of a sentence takes the nominative case and the
>object takes the accusative. If the verb doesn't take two arguments
(i.e. it
>is intransitive), the lone argument it has takes the nominative.
>
>ego eo
>1s.nom go.1s
>I go
>
>ego te amo
>1s.nom thou.acc love.1s
>I love thee
>
>Latin verbs always agree with the nominative case (there is always a
>nominative in the sentence), so you'll probably find simply 'eo',
or 'te
>amo'.
>
>My conlang Vaiysi uses a system called ergative: the subject of an
>intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb take the absolutive
>case. The subject of a transitive verb takes the ergative case.
If the verb
>takes only one argument, this is in the absolutive case.
>
>vyea yegam
>1s.abs go.1s
>I go
>
>ves loudad et
>1s.erg love.2s thou.abs
>I love thee
>
>Vaiysi verbs, otoh, always agree with the absolutive case (there
is always
>an absolutive in the sentence); this means you'll probably find simply
>'yegam' or 'ves loudad'.
>
>There are, finally, languages which use active systems. The cases'
purposes
>are based on semantics: agentive is the case used for agents of
normally
>volitional verbs (break, push...) when it is the subject of the
sentence;
>patientive is the case used for objects of an action or a state, which
>suffer its consequences - in other words the object of volitional
verbs;
>'recipient' case is the case used for subject of perception verbs
(hear,
>see, smell), non volitional intransitive verbs (sleep) or indirect
objects
>(dative); 'oblique' is the case used for objects of non volitional
verbs.
>
>If you want to read a list of 30 useful cases, visit this page:
>
http://www.valdyas.org/andal/languages/denden/grammar/cases.html which
>explains the cases system of Boudewijn Rempt's Denden.
>
>> Thanks for the patience
>
>That's nothing.
>
>> Patrick
>>
>
>Luca
>
>>
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