Re: Adverbs vs. prepositions

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

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