Re: Ergative or Vocative?

Thomas wrote:

>Danny Wier wrote:
>
> >                 'water'     'bride'
> > Nominative      weat        k@ul        [wE:t, k@ulw]
> > Oblique stem    weta-       k@lu-       [wEta, k@lu]
> > Accusative      wetaam      k@luam      [wetam, k@luVm]
> > Genitive        wetaun      k@luun      [wetaumw, k@lu:n]
> > Gen. of acc.    wetamaun    k@lumaun    [wetamaunw, k@lumaunw]
> > Vocative?       weta        k@lu
> >
> > So for the zero-ending, what would be more likely in a natlang -- a
>vocative
> > case or an ergative?
>
>Well, since you already have a fairly typical nominative-accusative
>system going here, I'd suggest vocative.
Yeah, I'll probably go that route.  Except I actually have a mixed system,
similar to that of Georgian.  I don't know how ergative is going to be
marked, nor do I know in what verbal/clause environments.  I'm thinking of
adopting the Kartvelian screeve system (the matrix of tense-aspect-status
that helps make Georgian verb grammar very scary).

Danny

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com