On Sun, 2 Nov 2003 06:54:18 +0100, Remi Villatel <maxilys@...>
wrote:
>> What it looks like is your conlang has animate
>> and inanimate genders. So does my Talarian,
>> though the gender is grammatical more than
>> natural.
>
> It doesn't work this way. Animals which are living beings --so animate--
> are described with an *objective* pronoun. They are considered (with a
> lot of
> respect) as objects. And the same way you'll use a *m./f.* pronoun to
> talk about the family pet, the Shaqueans (my aliens) will use a
> *subjective*
> pronoun, as if it was a family member.
This does sound like animacy. Though...it sounds like you want something
more like "agentive" instead of "subjective" (and perhaps 'nonagentive'
for 'objective')
> The Shaqueans which are double-gendered (hermaphrodite) like most of the
> animals don't need a male/female discrimination. They're not so arrogant
> to think that their body in more than an animal but they also feel that
> they
> possess something the animals don't: their spirit. Hence the
> discrimination spirit/body and person/everything else they put in their
> language. I think that makes the discrimination *subjective/objective*
> as natural as *m./f.*
Note the etymology of "animate" itself.
*Muke!
--
http://frath.net/
http://kohath.livejournal.com/
E jer savne zarjé mas ne (You put music in my heart
Se imné koone'f metha And with the spirit of an artist
Brissve mé kolé adâ. I will make the dreamtime)