Matthew Pearson nevesht:
>
>--- You wrote:
>Ergative's used for object of prepositions? Though I think it makes sense
>(I've
>heard of a universal that says that unmarked cases are never used with
>prepositions, hence nominative-accusative languages never use nominative
>with
>prepositions - Esperanto being an exception, but since it's an artificial
>language it doesn't count -), I don't know if it's usual. Anybody knows of
>an
>ergative language with prepositions which could be an example?
>--- end of quote ---
Actually that was Christophe Grandsire
>
>Since ergative case is also used to mark the possessor, I could see using
>it for the 'objects' of adpositions if the adpositions were somehow
>noun-like. Many languages have things like "the house's interior" for
>"inside the house".
>
>Of course, if adpositions patterned with nouns in Lisanek, and their
>'objects' with possessors, I would expect them to precede the noun and
>trigger construct state marking on the preposition: "house interior-CONS".
Pronouns precede the preposition, nouns follow
ni a: 1.erg to: to me
a Kanada: to Canada (or O Canada since is also used as a vocative)
note not in construct state.
-Wayne Chevrier
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp