There are 2 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest:
1.1. Re: Prairie Dog Language - no, really. From: Padraic Brown 2. Unusual Tenses From: neo gu Messages ________________________________________________________________________ 1.1. Re: Prairie Dog Language - no, really. Posted by: "Padraic Brown" elemti...@yahoo.com Date: Thu Jul 11, 2013 11:31 am ((PDT)) > From: Alex Fink <000...@gmail.com> > > Hm, conspecies idea: what about a species which has more than one independent > *consciousness* that don't interface with each other, the same way the > critters above have multiple sensory modalities that don't interface with > each other? Multiple personality disorder, only writ large and broad. Padraic Messages in this topic (39) ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 2. Unusual Tenses Posted by: "neo gu" qiihos...@gmail.com Date: Thu Jul 11, 2013 4:23 pm ((PDT)) The current version (Jul05) marks TAM using suffixes. First comes the aspect (stative or aoristic, progressive, habitual, perfect, and prospective), then the mood (imperative, subjunctive, and indicative plus non-finite forms). If the mood is indicative, the tense follows. There are 5 suffixes in that slot: AT -- absolute time ("now") DT -- definite time ("then") QT -- question time (used in "when" questions) RT -- relative time (used in temporal adjunct clauses) CT -- complement time (used in complement clauses) These all were originally adverbs that got appended to the verb. One thing that's unusual is that AT and DT form a present vs non-present tense system with DT used for both past and future references, depending on context. A past context may be set up by using the perfect + AT as an indefinite past tense; similarly, the prospective + AT can be used as an indefinite future. Or QT may be used. An example: 'u gyomi kaukc^i ben? 'u gyomi-0-0 ka-uk-0-c^i ben Def cat-S-Acc see-Prf-Fin-AT PQ "Have you seen the cat?" ku res^ta no ka kauto. ku res^ta-0-0 no-0 ka ka-0-u-to Def house-S-Acc in-Loc 3ASAcc see-Aor-Fin-DT "I saw it in the house." ka kaukubo? ka ka-uk-u-bo 3ASAcc see-Prf-Fin-QT "When did you see it?" Another example: ku 'erefante kaasc^i. ku 'erefante-0-0 ka-as-0-c^i Def elephant-S-Acc see-Pro-Fin-AT "I'm going to see the elephant." kes^ roda gurakento. kes^ roda-0 gurak-en-0-to 3ASNom beer-Abs drink-Prg-Fin-DT "It will be drinking beer." Does anyone know of a natlang or conlang using a similar system? Messages in this topic (1) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/conlang/ <*> Your email settings: Digest Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/conlang/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: conlang-nor...@yahoogroups.com conlang-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: conlang-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------