In Old Skourene, in the Ergative-Absolutive paradigm of verbs, how does it work when the subject is in the same person as the object, but they have different numbers? In particular, the second person:
*Thou did something to you.
*You did something to thee.
In English this is pragmatically impossible (I think). These slots are not left blank on the subject/object matrix, so they must mean something. (They couldn't have both been errors and survived onto the final copy of OS grammar, could they?)
Old Skourene Erg/Abs paradigm: pragmatic subjects/objects
Old Skourene Erg/Abs paradigm: pragmatic subjects/objects
Stubbornly trying to rekindle my conlanging passion.
Hmm... I'm not entirely sure I'm understanding the example. (Wouldn't "you-s have benefitted yourself and (e.g.) your people, but not the country" be more appropriate?)
BUT I am convinced that I should not leave those slots on my subject-object grid blank, and will presently fill them in.
BUT I am convinced that I should not leave those slots on my subject-object grid blank, and will presently fill them in.
Stubbornly trying to rekindle my conlanging passion.
Well, "you-pl" does mean "you and your people". That is, one meaning of "you-pl" is "you-s and some other folks" where those folks are pragmatically obvious. (Another meaning is when an entire group is addressed.)Entwistle54 wrote:Hmm... I'm not entirely sure I'm understanding the example. (Wouldn't "you-s have benefitted yourself and (e.g.) your people, but not the country" be more appropriate?)
Note that the ergative and absolutive are really formed separately in Old Skourene, so it was a no-brainer to fill them in. If you have (say) suppletive forms, as Klingon does, you can leave out slots. (Quechua's table is entirely illogical— many slots are missing and others are re-used in a baffling way.)BUT I am convinced that I should not leave those slots on my subject-object grid blank, and will presently fill them in.
You probably want to allow 3rd person forms though, as it's much easier to find examples where you need them ("He saw him").