Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Short Question: Actant

From:Muke Tever <hotblack@...>
Date:Thursday, September 1, 2005, 16:59
ruittenb@tiscali.nl <ruittenb@...> wrote:
> This makes me wonder.. > Is there any language that marks nouns with > person? E.g.: > > The man-2SG is-2SG eating. > = You, the man, are eating. > > The president-1SG is-1SG talking to you. > = I, the president, am talking > to you.
English could be seen as doing this--if you take: The president's talking to you (President-3SG) (verb--not marked for person) to be an example. (One of my future-English conlangs grammaticalizes this: a clitic or suffix, not sure which yet, is the only way to show person and tense, while the descendent of the verb only displays aspect.) For some reason though [in English] using nouns as first and second person is entirely verboten... even when a noun represents the first or second person ("Your master..") the verb is explicitly third person: ("...commands you!") *Muke! -- website: http://frath.net/ LiveJournal: http://kohath.livejournal.com/ deviantArt: http://kohath.deviantart.com/ FrathWiki, a conlang and conculture wiki: http://wiki.frath.net/

Reply

Tim May <butsuri@...>