Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Types of possession

From:Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...>
Date:Monday, December 19, 2005, 19:40
On 12/18/05, John Quijada <jq_ithkuil@...> wrote:
> I guess I'm too late to add to the fray, but for what it's worth, Ithkuil > distinguishes all of the following "possessives":
gjâ-zym-byn can distinguish many though not all of these:
> the man's chair = the chair belonging to him [alienable but conventionally > recognized/sanctioned possession] > the man's house = the house he legally owns [proprietary responsibility]
Both "wunx-i" - ownership-at.
> the man's chair = the one he's currently sitting in [circumstantial]
Perhaps sxâj-i - possession-at; or more likely "txin" (under-in.contact.with)
> the man's arm = part of his body [inalienable component/part-whole relationship]
im
> the man's happiness = he feels happy [affective experience]
sxu-i -- quality-at
> the man's rescue = he is the one rescued [target of others' purpose]
I think this would be rendered with the man in the patient case, hxy-i. max hxy-i kxuj-rq-fwa-toqj miq-i wlax-fwa nxiqn-i. man PAT-at danger-out.of-CAUS-NMZ TOP-at surprise-CAUS CMT-at The man's rescue was surprising.
> the man's rescue = he's the one performing the rescue [act one performs]
rynq-i (doing-at; like Esperanto "fare de" but doesn't include authorship of artistic works)
> the man's gift = the gift is for him [benefaction] > the man's gift = the gift is from him [source]
wunx-rq (ownership-from) and wunx-o (ownership-to); or perhaps sxâj-rq and sxâj-o.
> the man's brother = the brother related to him [genetic relationship] > the man's team = the team he is associated with [interactive mutual association]
Both these would be "lĭw-i" -- all personal relationships whether genetic or adoptive or voluntarily contracted can be denoted that way, though gzb has a way to turn specific relationship words into postpositions too: kq lĭw-i tâ sqej brajeqn-ram - me relation-at sibling that.is Brian-NAME kq tâ-i brajeqn-ram - me sibling-at Brian
> the man's team = the team he manages/coaches [oversight, responsibility]
gym-i [leadership-at]
> the man's story = the story about him [topical reference]
miq-i (literally "topic-at"; "about"; also the topic case postposition; very overloaded)
> the man's story = the one he wrote[creation/authorship]
dâm-rq -- authorship-from
> the man's story = the one he told/related [could be authored by another]
Hm. I need a way to distinguish performance from authorship. Time to coin another morpheme...
> the man's command = his being a commander [role or function]
Perhaps "sxu-i" (quality-at) but more likely "jâ-i" (role-at).
> the man's world = the world in which he lives [inherent subjective association]
This one stumps me. I would be more likely to speak about mu im mâ world part.of man I don't have a postposition signifying "of which X is part" but I guess I could derive it from "im" with the complement suffix, so mâ im-txaj mu man part.of-OPP world the world of which the man is part -- Jim Henry http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/gzb/gzb.htm ...Mind the gmail Reply-to: field