Re: Diffrent possessions

Hemmo wrote:
>
> I changed a lot on my conlang Némalo lately, but I don't think it is good
> enough yet. I tried some translations to test my lang, but now I'm stuck
> in possessions that (to me) don't seem to be possessions.
>
> What I mean are the translations of the word "of": in the sentence "his
> leg" the leg is a possession because "he" owns the leg. In the
> sentences "his arrival" or "the arrest of …" it seems to me the arrival
> and the arrest are things that are being done and therefore are no
> possession, but are treated as such. Is there some kind of difference in
> terms for this? Or could I work around it somehow?
My conlang, Glörsa, has a posessive form and a genetive form. The
posessive is used specifically to show *ownership*:

sentö sh`ë [sE'nto Se] - my book (the one I own)
zifö.a sha jonï [zIfo?A SA dZ6ni] - John's horse (the one he owns)

The genetive is used to show that something came from something else, as
well as non-ownership "posession", including things like body parts:

sentö d`ë [sE'nto de] - my book (the one I wrote)
tharü da jonï [TA4u dA dZ6ni] - John's mother
gebin d`ï  [gEbIn di] - his leg

Note that "tharü sha jonï", with the posessive, would translate as "the
mother John owns" ie that the mother is a slave. Likewise, "gebin sh`ï"
would carry the meaning of, "the leg that John owns", which is kind of
sick when you think about it :-P

In Glörsa, "his arrival" would be rendered as a verb:

"His arrival was stylish" - ï klema' ken zhawaze [i klEmA' kEn ZAVAzE]
(lit. he arrive past posessing-twinkle)

I'm not sure how something like "the robber's arrest occured just in time."

Gregory Gadow