nominator sentences (was Re: cases)

In a message dated 2000:09:10 2:52:25 PM, hsteoh@QUICKFUR.YI.ORG writes:

>ObConlang: I like this idea of high context-sensitivity in langs. So I've
>come up with a (weird?) concept in my conlang, called Nominator sentences.
>
>Nominator sentences are analogous to giving a title to an essay,
>sub-titles to sections within an essay/written work, etc.; except that
>nominator sentences are used much more frequently by native speakers of
>my
>conlang, and are very much a part of the spoken language. A nominator
>sentence consists of a single noun-phrase with the function of the
>locative case; and it "sets the tone" for subsequent discourse. <SNiP>
>
>I'm still working out the details of this system, so things may change,
>but the basic idea of context will remain. Just wondering if anyone else
>knows of similar constructs in natlangs or other conlangs? I'd be curious
>to know about them :-)
    This idea: niceness. A very intriguing idea that I like a lot. We - me
with Caos Pidgin & you with Project N (Nominative) - can come up with a "new"
subclass of isolating languages called "elliptical." ;)

    Oh BTW: I am -AGAIN - considering changing the name of Caos Pidgin to
something shorter & less "semantically" loaded (avoiding a certain trendiness
since _Chaos_ is being thrown around a bit much these days). Also a catchy
two syllable name would be more intriguing.
    Three possibilities come to mind: Polo (after Marco Polo), Ricci (after
Matteo Ricci) and Buzzi (after Paolo Buzzi)... hehe...

    Any comments?

    czHANg