Re: Chevraqis: a sketch

On Thu, 10 Aug 2000, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:

> > The arabic approach is that adjectives are essentially static verbs.
> > Consider HMR (red). the static form (ahmar) is 'to be red'. the dynamic form
> > (hamar) is classed as a type 1 verb, and means 'to become red ; to blush'.
> > the type 2 form is hammar, to make someone blush. I've read that there are
> > about 44 different word shapes for each 3 letter root in arabic.
>
> My adjectives were originally based on what I gleaned from two Japanese
> grammars, so the interface probably is screwy and will remain so until I
> learn more.
Japanese i-adjectives are essentially static verbs.  If you adopt them as
such, you can case mark the subjects of these verbs as non-volitional,
IIRC that is accusative in your lang, so "the ball is red" would be
something like "ball-acc red" with the various tense/mood/etc marking on
"red".

Marcus