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
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1.1. Re: Prairie Dog Language - no, really.
Posted by: "Padraic Brown" [email protected]
Date: Thu Jul 11, 2013 11:31 am ((PDT))
> From: Alex Fink <[email protected]>
>
> 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)
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2. Unusual Tenses
Posted by: "neo gu" [email protected]
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)
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