> [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On Behalf Of Jim Henry
> > To me that would more along the lines of instrumental. S:S:
has
> > a short preposition "ju" to mark the instrumental.
>
> gzb derives the main instrumental postposition from a root
> noun {syj} meaning "using" (which also derives the verb "to
use");
> säb zjeda apparently doesn't have a lexicon entry for an
> instrumental prep. yet but it would be (will be, now) derived
> from "shpig", v. "to use".
There is a verb "juz" which is "to use", but the instrumental is
common enough that I gave it a short form though "juzu" would
work too.
> I've long had another instrumental postp. in gzb for using
> body parts and internal faculties (memory, imagination etc.)
> in contrast to external tools and materials. I've recently
> experimented
> with deriving another instrumental postp. for using materials
> that get used up during a task as opposed to tools that
> typically continue to be usable for future tasks, but I'm not
> settled on it yet. I doubt I'll make a postpositional
distinction
> between different uses of materials as in "paint a landscape
> with watercolors" vs. "wash the stove with Ajax"; the former
> would prob. be expressed with a modifier in {-na}, "made of",
> rather than an instrumental postposition of any kind.
The idea of something for materials that diminish or
disintegrate in the process is kind of interesting. Something
like "my car runs *on* gasoline" where "on" would be some
special word like "burning up".