Universal Agent and Patient markers.

Started by Swoka Swizaw, January 25, 2010, 12:37:17 PM

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Swoka Swizaw

I just wanted to write this post to demonstrate a keen way to remember the case ending suffixes, but also to show that there may be an underlying layer to what seems random (at least to me).

Agent:
    Ergative: -ìl, -l
    Topic: -ìri, -ri

Patient:
    Accusative: -it, -t, (-ti)
    Dative: -ur, -r, (-ru)

By this model, I find commonalities in between the ergative and topical and the accusative and dative. The genitive (-yä, -ä, -eyä) is one that I can't explain, yet. I feel that Frommer might have done things, via this model, intentionally. Just a thought. For obvious reasons, as to not overlap concepts, he added a "i" to the topical to differentiate from the dative. The topical does NOT change - always "-(ì)ri" - like the dative tends to do, much like Frommer demonstrated in his response: ayngar, ayngaru.

I also feel that the "-ru" and "-ti" are special markers that are yet to be fully explained. They could be used to express importance pertaining to the overall focus of the statement. The fact that one can interchange them proves to me that their use could be circumstantial.

Any thoughts? Am I close to what you all have thought?

kewnya txamew'itan

There is definitely a link between dative and accusative as they are both objective cases.

The topical on the other hand is not necessarily the agent. We know it can replace the genitive and it seems likely that it can also replace the accusative and dative and so is neither.

Also, similarities in their phonology doesn't imply a semantic or syntactic relation.
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