Re: Cases and adpositions

On Fri, Aug 02, 2002 at 08:16:21AM -0700, Nihil Sum wrote:
> Hey, how do you like that: I just found out that Hungarian has 20 (+?)cases.
> Lots of local cases.
Indeed.

> Now I wonder: is there a way to make a system of many many cases without
> most of them being locative cases? What other things could be indicated on a
> noun?
> You've got your subject-object / agent-patient relationship,
Depends. Ebisedian has no such concept, even though it has 5 cases :-)

> instrumentality, indirect object or "recipient", genitive / possessive...
"Recipient" and "object" are usually synonymous in Ebisedian. But then
again, Ebisedian is hardly typical of languages with noun cases.

> I'm trying to think how one would add more non-locative concepts to a big
> list of cases.
How about this:

Vocative: for addressing people/things (Classical Greek has this, modern
        Greek may still have it)

Benefactive: marks an indirect benefactor of an action:
        "I did this *for my father* (bene.)"

Malefactive: marks an indirect victim of an action:
        "I wrote this to her *against him* (male.)"

Topic (not sure how to call this): as in, "concerning X". E.g.,
        "He was speaking concerning the sun to her", "the sun" being in
        the "topic" case, "her" being the object.

Reflexive: instead of having a separate word for "oneself"
        (myself/yourself/himself/herself/etc.) you could have a separate
        case for it: "I(reflex) speak" = "I speak with myself";
        "I(reflex) look" = "I look at myself", etc.

        Reflexivity need not be applied merely to subject/object
        inversions; you can, for example, talk *about* yourself:
        "I(nom+topic) talk to you" = "I tell you about myself". You can
        create new combinations using various reflexivities this way.

Accompaniment: You can do something with somebody by your side, eg.:
        "I(subj) my friend(accom) went to the mall."


... there are probably a lot more possibilities, I'll have to think about
it. :-)


T

--
Frank disagreement binds closer than feigned agreement.