zompist bboard

Er, the example I just gave is precisely ergative syntax and accusative morphology. What you're saying is unattested is in fact attested. But perhaps you meant something else... I think we are speaking about different things. I do not disagree that accusative marking and what Dixon would call " int...

so you might end up with a sentence in the Subjunctive mood about you and your listener having Accusative morphology but Ergative syntax! This happens in many Australian languages. E.g. subject assignment is ergative, and pronouns are accusative, so you have sentences like He hit her, and then left...

It depends. You could, probably, but it would be a system that would be extremely Split-S and also probably highly unstable. Also it would take a lot of very unorthodox grammar. ... Yep, I'm making one now. Lol, have fun! I agree with you, though. Unorthodox grammar, indeed. I envision, as an ideal...

... Monster Raving Looney system... I love it! I'll take a stab at why Active-Stative languages are treated differently from other Ergative languages. In what I've come to understand, Ergativity is something of a spectrum. At one end you have Latin with Accusative morphology and syntax, the other A...

It's been a while since I've lurked, let alone posted, here so I decided it was time to make a blip and share some stuff that I learned this year in my linguistic typology class. I've been working on a conlang for some time, now. A few years, off and on, never adding very much at a time. One of the ...

My non human culture doesn't have a system of measurement... yet. Although, I suppose the most likely candidate for a unit of length might be the heights of various trees (they are airborn forest dwellers). So, you could say that 1 Redwood roughly equals 250 feet, or 1 Oak roughly equals (what?) 70 ...

Having just completed an undergrad research project on the California Vowel Shift, I will say that that the use of [oːʊ] (rather than, what, [ɔʊ] or [əʊ]?) in the GOAT set is pretty widespread, at least in the Bay and Capital areas (and apparently Redding). Sounds perfectly normal to me :P . As for ...

I've heard some good things about Genki. I also have Japanese Step By Step, which is possibly one of the easiest to understand (incomplete) texts I've encountered so far. I just wish that the author put his whole course into the book instead of the basics. I understand a new edition came out recentl...

Don't forget that your teacher is a human (I assume), so it should be いました not ありました. Also, it really should be 日本語 は 少しだけ話せます, not を. Or you can even drop it altogether. The use of the potential form changes transitivity and forces the object into subject position. This distinction is often ignore...

You're using Nakama?? I am SO sorry. I'm also using Nakama at uni and I actually kinda hate this book. Learn Japanese New College Text was a superior textbook, imo. It was better organized by far and had more effective examples. Nakama is a lot prettier, though. 高校で三年生から四年生まで日本語を勉強しました。いい先生がありました。でも...

Sorry I posted so slow. Been wrapping up the school semester with house cleaning and such. ----------------------------------------- Yoshe examined her keycard with some consternation. It had taken a long time for her to learn the counting script used by the humans on her own world--not least becau...

If you don't mind another, I'd love to join. This character is, in all honesty, a fairy. The whole species was based around the myths that came out of Britain, Ireland, and Western Europe regarding fey and changelings. They are usually the size of a 7-10 year old child, can be mischievous, and tend...

Insofar as it is distinct from other endings, yes. In fact, Faerelo even has an uninflected form that's different from the infinitive that's used for compounding and subordination, but the removal of the infinitive ending is considered to be the derivation, not the other way around. If you ask an L1...

@ Tom: Faerelo verbs are, like Spanish verbs, considered to be uninflected in their infinitive forms, which are <-ar, -er, -ur, -ir, -or> (the whole vowel inventory). The <or> verbs are the versative (or ambitransitive--mine is easier to type ^_^ ) ones. Since these forms are the base forms, then th...

In Faerelo, transitives end with high vowels and intransitives end with front mid and front low vowels. It also has verbs which can be either (as English does--consider 'eat'), and these are marked with an <o>. They don't conjugate any differently. The difference only shows up in the base infinitive...

"Get some ganas" sounds kinda like "Grow some balls".... ^_^;;; .

My Span teacher in high school explained "ganar" as "to have a strong desire to do/passion for something." I like this word, too .

"The skyscraper which has blue windows." Or you could be all Pirate-y and say "The skyscraper what has blue windows."