A Metaphorical Suggestion

[Koontz John E]

Ardis, thanks very much for taking the time to elaborate on your scheme
for me!  I know you must be pretty busy.

On Mon, 25 Mar 2002, Ardis R Eschenberg wrote:

> The characters that are in motion as the scene changes are marked with
> ama.  Not all characters always shift to the next scene, those are
> just dropped.  New characters may occur at the new scene, these are
> not marked with ama (except marked plurality).

So, it's not just the presence of one non-plural ama that marks the
transition of the scene, but ama specifically marks the references that
transit to the next scene.

> > Also, it sounds as
> > if, perhaps, a change of scene could occur with ama-marking if there is no
> > movement (or is novement necessary?).

I made a mistake in wording here - I meant to ask if a change of scene can
occur "with*out* ama-marking if there is no movement ...?"

> > I assume ama-marking of plurality can occur without a change of scene?
> Ama marking of plurality can occur without scene shift.

Naturally, the language works the way it works, but I wonder about the
independent behavior of the two ama articles.  A given situation usually
reflects in some way its origins, but here the motion ama behaves quite
differently from the plurality ama.  This might suggest that they're
actually of separate origin, though they are certainly homophonous.  But
if they're independent in behavior (and possibly origin), you might not
need to worry about linking them in terms of markedness.

Thinking about it, I'd say that they would be more likely to be linked by
something like vagueness or lack of focus.  This is somewhat contrary to
my instinct that references transiting to a new scene might be relatively
more important and - excuse the word - focussed upon, but perhaps they are
really "departing" or "arriving" and so less, uh, focussed upon.

> just the scene.  So, ama marking tends to occur couple by a motion
> verb.  I guess a Rip van Winkle story would involve scene shift
> without motion (just sleep).

I seem to recall some possibly analogous situations in some of the Buffalo
woman stories - the hero awakes and all trace of her is gone.

> That would be interesting, but then again maybe not.  Only time, not
> scene would shift. The scene would be different but the same location.
> I doubt ama would pop up.

This may perhaps answer my question about motionless scene changes.

It would be nice if there were some additional markers of scene changes.