Re: Telek Nouns

Marcus Smith wrote:

>> Incidentally, Tokana is like Telek in that it uses nouns to denote
>> adpositional-type relations.  Your "under the blanket" would be
>> "itË lome pamul" (literally "the-DAT underside-DAT blanket",
>> or "at the blanket's underside"), while "under it" would be
>> "itË lomei" (literally "the-DAT underside-DAT-it", or "at its
>> underside").
>
>It seems that the article ite modifies the locational noun.  Is that
>right?  If so, then how would you specify the difference between "under
>the blanket" and "under a blanket"?  Is that distinction even possible?
The locational noun and the 'content' noun ("blanket" in this case)
actually form a N + N compound.  Like other N + N compounds in
the language, the noun on the left is the head of the compound, and
hosts the case suffix (case also being marked on the determiner),
while the modifying noun appears in its unmarked form.  So "itè lome
pamul" is literally "at the blanket-underside", with dative case
marked on the determiner and on the head noun "underside".

It is understood that because the underside is definite, the blanket
is also definite ('definiteness percolation'?), hence the translation
"under THE blanket".  To say "under A blanket", merely omit the
determiner:  "lome pamul".

Matt.