Elkar?l grammar

[zompist]

Mark, when you write ny in Elkar?l, do you mean ?, or n?, or [nj]?

It's a typo for ?.

[So Haleza Grise]

(There are practical limits on how long one can remember eight variables-- though these are somewhat longer for elcari than for humans. As a rule of thumb, once a conversation ends, the assignments are in force for about an hour.)

So variables will maintain themselves after a conversation has ended. This raises the question: what if two elcari encounter each other after both having left separate conversations, where they were assigned the same variable? Presumably there would be a reassignment of variables sometime, but when would they know to do this? Would it take long, and if it did, would ambiguity result?

[zompist]

So variables will maintain themselves after a conversation has ended. This raises the question: what if two elcari encounter each other after both having left separate conversations, where they were assigned the same variable? Presumably there would be a reassignment of variables sometime, but when would they know to do this? Would it take long, and if it did, would ambiguity result?

What I had in mind was (say) two elcari talking together, falling silent, and then taking up the conversation an hour later. In this case they will remember and re-use the previous assignments.

In the case you bring up, there really is no previous conversation between these two participants, so new assignments have to be made.

More complicated cases can arise... e.g., a conversation at an inn, where people are coming in and out. Someone who rejoins the conversation after an interval can't expect the same variable assignments as when he left; he'll have to adapt to the ones currently in force.

Or a variation on the first scenario: two elcari are talking, fall silent, and are later joined by a third. What happens will depend on who starts talking first, who the participants are, and the topic.

I think I'm making it sound more mysterious than it is; I think we also have a sense, despite possibly changing participants, of whether "the same conversation" is starting up again, or whether a new one is. The main difference for the elcari is that the interval of silence can last longer (and there's more referents to remember).

(This makes me realize that I haven't stated how elcari ask what the current assignments are! I think the simplest solution is to use the general interrogative particle-- Nanqebut? would ask who referent u is.)

Does anyone know how this works in ASL? Are the spatial anaphora established in a conversation available if the participants continue the discussion later?

[Ihano]

Shifting variables of that sort would make the book April March by Herbert Quain, as imagined by Borges, rather interesting linguistically.