Re: Pronouns Marked for Tense/Aspect/Mood

Arthaey Angosii wrote:
> >b) Are there other languages which mark tense on pronouns?
>
> It seems like the natlang samples are kind of like pronoun-verb
> tense/aspect/mood agreement, rather than the pronoun carrying a
> tense/aspect/mood of its own, separate from the verb.
I'd have to check this in the old grammar, which I don't have access to
nowadays, but IIRC the Indonesian language Mori (spoken in eastern
Celebes/Sulawesi) has something like this:

1.  One series of pronouns, clear reflexes of cognate items in other
languages, used to indicate past/present or "realis";
2. A second series based on the above, but with prefixes and suffixes, used
to indicate future/conditional or "irrealis".
What I'm not sure of is whether the verb form also has a different prefix in
each case.....Nor what what happens in the case of a noun subject...

(snip)
> Them non-conlangers can be so unimaginative!  :)  For an example from
> Asha'ille of exactly the notion of "formerly me":
>
> Regular, declarative sentences (realis mood?):
>     Pas shav en'i.       "I spoke."
>     Pas shav pen'o.      "Past-I spoke."
Seems to me that the Past-I would be most used in narratives or
reminiscences...
>
> Optative mood:
>     Teir pas shav en'i.  "It would be good that I spoke."
>     Teir pas shav pen'o. "It would be good that past-I spoke."
>
I wonder if the last sentence shouldn't better be "it would have been
good.....".   "It would be good..."seems to me to imply futurity, "it would
be good (at some point in the future) that [childish-I] spoke", a little
contradictory or at least strange IMO.  But I may be misunderstanding your
usage.

....... Instead, Cresaeans believe that a person's fundamental identity
> changes over time.  After enough time, a person is so different from who
> they used to be that he can't properly be referred to as the same person
> anymore -- thus, a new pronoun is required.
In that case, shouldn't there also be a form for "future-I"?

Paul's I Cor.13:11 springs to mind:
"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child....but when
I became a man, I put away childish things."    And for a possible
"future-pronoun":, verse 12:
"For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face; now I know in
part; but then shall I know....."

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