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Re: Adverbs vs. prepositions

From:Pablo Flores <fflores@...>
Date:Saturday, February 20, 1999, 19:08
Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote:
> Pablo Flores wrote: > > > > In Ciravesu, some concepts (especially local concepts) > > are expressed only by adverbs, not by adpositions. For > > example, there's an adverb _or_ meaning _"below", but > > there's no postposition for "below, under". > > > > To use a postposition you must first inflect the noun for > > postpositional case. But to use adverbs this way you first > > establish the existence of the object, and then you use > > the adverb in the next proposition. For example: > > > > _Pano ce or ziece_ "I'm under the sun" > > lit. "Sun be, below I-be" > > How would you translate "I saw the man below the sun"?
Could be Pano ciu or cavama zialcani Sun being below man.ACC I-see.PAST (_ciu_ is the active participle of _ce_). If you actually meant "I saw the man who was below the sun": Pano ciu or chin cavama zialcani Sun being below was man.ACC I-see.PAST where [pano ciu or chin] is the subclause that modifies cava-ma "man.ACC". Subclauses come before the nouns they modify, just as in Japanese, with no relative pronoun. Finally, "I, being below the sun, saw the man": Pano ciu or ciu ziri cavama alcani. (_ziri_ is the full pronoun "I"; zi- is a prefix.) --Pablo Flores * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Maugham's Thought: Only a mediocre person is always at his best. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *