Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Tense on Nouns

From:Brian B <caol.kailash@...>
Date:Saturday, February 17, 2007, 19:43
I'd actually only mentioned the time travela nd grammar thing in passing and
in that it got me thinking about the other idea. Sorry if I didn't make that
more clear before. They're sorta just disconnected ideas.

Cheers,
B

On 2/17/07, Eldin Raigmore <eldin_raigmore@...> wrote:
> > On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:42:45 -0700, Brian B <caol.kailash@...> > wrote: > >I was reading the discussion on Time Travel and Grammar and came up > >with an idea that I thought I'd share/bounce off everyone: What if the > >tense was attached to the noun instead of the verb? So that it'd look > >something like this: > > > >I-(present)-(agent) type-(action) email-(present)-(direct object). > > > >And potentially, I guess you could have different tenses for different > >nouns in the sentence. > > > >I-(present)-(agent) see-(action) him-(past)-(direct object). > > > >And maybe with the last example, also have a thing denoting on the > >noun the day it was seen, like him-(past)-(yesterday)-(direct object). > > > >I assume this has been done/is done somewhere and would like > >suggestions for further examples of implementation. > > > >Peace and Light, > >B > > > >-- > > As far as language for time-travellers is concerned, this has been > discussed on > this list before, and is even now being discussed on the Zompist BBoard. > > What was suggested here before -- sorry I can't remember who suggested it, > or when -- was that the morphology keep track of past/present/future on > several timelines simultaneously. > > The verb will be marked to show that the clause is about something in the > present or past or future of the speaker's subjective life-stream, and to > show > that it is something in the present or past or future of the addressee's > subjective life-stream. > > The subject (and possibly other noun phrases that are direct core > arguments > or terms) will be marked to show that the clause is about something in the > present or past or future of the subject's subjective life-stream. If all > of the > noun-phrases are "tensed" in this way, the language can be very precise > about when each participant experiences/has experienced/will experience > the > event in question, without piling up "tenses" on the verb. > > ------ > > In ZBB it has been pointed out that this basically means the major > division in > noun-classes (or "genders") is between things that are capable of > time-travel > and things that are not. (For the careful, we mean things that can travel > at a > non-default rate or in a non-default direction, versus things that can > travel > only at the default rate and in the default direction). > >
-- "Speak the truth. Practice virtue. Do not neglect to study every day. Do not neglect truth, virtue, studying or teaching.... Be one to whom your mother is a god...your teacher is a god, a guest is like a god.... Give with faith...give liberally, give with modesty...give with sympathy.... This is the command. This is the teaching. This is the secret of the Veda...." (Taittiriya Upanishad i.11.1-6)