Re: preferred voices?

H. S. Teoh wrote:

>Interesting. Focus in my conlang is achieved by word order -- case
>markings remaing the same. For example:
[examples snipped]

Telek does this as well, and it interacts with passive.

1) nimmi'-il pidel-ed ke-so-xaltal-ni
    horse-NOM peter-ACC AsA-AsP-hurt-PERF
    '*The horse* hurt Peter.'  (Or, "it was the horse that hurt Peter (not
the bull).")

2) pidel-ed nimmi'-il ke-so-xaltal-ni
    peter-ACC horse-NOM AsA-AsP-hurt-PERF
    'The horse hurt *Peter* (not John)'.

3) pidel-el i-so-xaltal-ni
    peter-NOM PASS-AsP-hurt-PERF
    'Peter was hurt'

There is no way to add the "by"- phrase and keep it down to one clause.
All six possible orders of (1) and (2) are possible, all with different
focus/defocus interpretations.

>In my conlang, the agent would simply be omitted. See my other post for
>examples.
Telek arguments can only be omitted in contexts where English would have a
pronoun.  Sometimes where English would have a pronoun, and object gets
incorporated into the verb.


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Marcus Smith
AIM:  Anaakoot
"When you lose a language, it's like
dropping a bomb on a museum."
   -- Kenneth Hale
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