I started in your boat (my goodness, I once suggested that a conlang of
mine had a voiced glottal stop).  Now I teach linguistics.

The moral of the story: be careful.  This is insidious hobby.

--Patrick

On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 11:24 PM, Brian Weekes <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Cheers
>
> Thanks for the advice.
>
> Looks like I am going to have to hit the books again. The more I think I
> am learning about language and conlanging the more I seem to feel like I
> don't know much at all!
>
> I will press on though. I guess a lot of conlangers started in my boat at
> some point in time.
>
> Kind Regards
>
> --- On Mon, 7/11/11, Patrick Dunn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > From: Patrick Dunn <[log in to unmask]>
> > Subject: Re: On case
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Received: Monday, 7 November, 2011, 3:16 PM
> > I think you're a little confused on
> > terminology, which might be the source
> > of your other confusion.  In natlangs, case applies to
> > nouns and things
> > acting like nouns, not to verbs.
> >
> > Nouns decline into cases.  Verbs conjugate into
> > forms.
> >
> > Now, with an OSV word order, I'd probably expect
> > prepositions and thus
> > head-initial phrase structure.
> >
> > girl.ACC boy.NOM likes
> > girl.ACC in coffee-shop.LOC boy.NOM likes
> >
> > In other words, prepositional phrases and locative nouns
> > would follow the
> > words they modify, as would (probably) adjectives.
> >
> > Perhaps you meant that you want the verb to agree in person
> > and number with
> > the object.  My own language Oasa does something
> > similar: transitive verbs
> > agree with the gender (animate/inanimate) of the
> > object.  Of course, not
> > all verbs are transitive (at least, in natlangs -- I could
> > imagine a
> > conlang in which they were).  In that case, you'd need
> > a "null object" mark
> > of some kind, perhaps, or just a zero-morpheme.
> >
> > I'm not sure that's what you meant.  "Nominative verb"
> > is essentially
> > meaningless, since "nominative" can only apply to
> > nouns.  At least, in
> > natlangs.
> >
> > On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 9:37 PM, Brian Weekes <[log in to unmask]
> >wrote:
> >
> > > I am writing my first conlang at the moment. I have
> > read the language
> > > construction kit, in fact I think I could recite it,
> > and I have also read
> > > Pablo David Flores 'how to create a language'. I also
> > have a copy of
> > > Bernard Comrie's 'The World's Major Languages'.
> > >
> > > The language I am developing is OSV. I was told that
> > is pretty strange for
> > > a first conlang, however I wanted to create something
> > that could not be
> > > read as just a twisted version of English since that
> > is the only language I
> > > speak at the moment.
> > >
> > > I have thought of making case on the major verb agree
> > with the case on the
> > > object, however I find that I am having trouble
> > working out where I should
> > > place case for those varieties of case that I would
> > like to include that
> > > are not either nominative, accusative or dative.
> > >
> > > I could use some advice here. Am I simply trying to
> > use too many types of
> > > case perhaps? For example; I would really like to use
> > locative and motive
> > > forms of case, however I cannot see how they can sit
> > in an OSV sentence
> > > that already has a nominative verb that is in agrement
> > with the object.
> > >
> > > Any ideas?
> > >
> > > Cheers
> > > Brian
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Second Person, a chapbook of poetry by Patrick Dunn, is now
> > available for
> > pre-order from Finishing Line
> > Press<
> http://www.finishinglinepress.com/NewReleasesandForthcomingTitles.htm>.
> >
>



-- 
Second Person, a chapbook of poetry by Patrick Dunn, is now available for
pre-order from Finishing Line
Press<http://www.finishinglinepress.com/NewReleasesandForthcomingTitles.htm>.