VYAKARAN: South Asian Languages and Linguistics Net
Editors: Tej K. Bhatia, Syracuse University, New York
John Peterson, University of Osnabrueck, Germany
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Dear Bob, <br>
<br>
what language is it? E.g. in the Hissar Parya language, which reveals
some features both of the North-Western NIA and Rajasthani dialects, it
is <br>
normal to express given - including inalienable - possession through
formal pronominal enclitics or postpositional possessive pronouns. <br>
<br>
All the best <br>
Tatiana Oranskaia <br>
Bob Eaton schrieb:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="midBAY109-W166659B47E74DD08997B1C81E20@phx.gbl">VYAKARAN: South
Asian Languages and Linguistics Net
Editors: Tej K. Bhatia, Syracuse University, New York John Peterson,
University of Osnabrueck, Germany
Details: Send email to <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:listserv@listserv.syr.edu">listserv@listserv.syr.edu</a> and say: INFO VYAKARAN
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VYAKARAN FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME (Substitute your real name for first_name
last_name)
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</style>I'm not a native speaker to judge your sentences, but one
issue that I've discovered on this topic is that certain things are
acceptable in speech that wouldn't otherwise be acceptable in written
materials.<br>
<br>
I once got a sentence from a transcribed oral story (in a language
related to Hindi) that was effectively:<br>
<br>
... {small brother my} {water in} {drowning was}<br>
<br>
That is, the possessive 'my' was after the head noun when it should
have been before. It wasn't possible to argue that it was an
afterthought or "clarification" because there were only two
participants in the story and there was no confusion as to who's
brother he was. The "my" wasn't even really necessary from a discourse
point of view. <br>
<br>
This particular example may just have been aberrant, because both of
the referents (i.e. the 'brother' and 'my') were "known" entities, but
in other examples I have, the purpose for this out of position genitive
seems to be to give prominence to the (usually non-established) head
noun (in this case, 'brother'). So I guess this might be the English
equivalent of "my small BROTHER was drowning in the water!"<br>
<br>
However, again, I've tried using just this type of construction in
translated written stories in order to give prominence to a head noun,
but the language helpers consistently dis-prefer it. When I drew their
attention to this instance from a "natural story", they eventually
said... maybe he was speaking rather than writing the story (they
weren't aware that was originally an oral story).<br>
<br>
Just a thought,<br>
Bob Eaton<br>
<br>
<hr id="stopSpelling">
<br>
> VYAKARAN: South Asian Languages and Linguistics Net<br>
> Editors: Tej K. Bhatia, Syracuse University, New York<br>
> John Peterson, University of Osnabrueck, Germany<br>
> Details: Send email to <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:listserv@listserv.syr.edu">listserv@listserv.syr.edu</a> and say: INFO
VYAKARAN<br>
> Subscribe:Send email to <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:listserv@listserv.syr.edu">listserv@listserv.syr.edu</a> and say:<br>
> SUBSCRIBE VYAKARAN FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME<br>
> (Substitute your real name for first_name last_name)<br>
> Archives: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://listserv.syr.edu">http://listserv.syr.edu</a><br>
> <br>
> Dear all,<br>
> <br>
> I'm preparing a paper on discontinuous NPs (DNP) in some Indian
languages. <br>
> I got two sets of data that I would be interested in judgements
from <br>
> native speakers. It concerns discontinuous NPs in Hindi and
Gujarati, I <br>
> got conflicting judgements from different people, but
unfortunately some <br>
> of them were not-quite-native speakers. Still, even between native
<br>
> speakers there seems to be some variation. I just would like to
know how <br>
> widespread this variation is...<br>
> <br>
> Here's the set of Hindi sentences I need more judgements for. Keep
in mind <br>
> that the construction might be quite marked and that it probably
needs a <br>
> proper context for being acceptable. If so, just imagine any
context you <br>
> like... (Maybe the left peripheral noun should be read as a
contrastive <br>
> topic, but it's really up to you.)<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<hr>Make i'm yours. <a
href="http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Contribute/Default.aspx?source=TXT_TAGHM_MSN_Make_IM_Yours"
target="_new">Create a custom banner to support your cause.</a></blockquote>
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