Spanish demonstratives (was: RE: yet another romance conlang)

Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote:

> > In any case, *<e'so> doesn't need an accute (<esto> and <aquello>
> > don't either).
>
> I thought that when {este}, {ese} and {aquel} were used as pronouns,
> they required acutes?
[this is for Steg too:]
Yes, they do require acutes, because they could be confused with
the 'adjectival' demonstratives; so

        E'ste es mi padre.        'This(masc.) is my father.'
        Este hombre es mi padre.  'This man is my father.'

Same for the feminine forms. But the inanimate forms ending in -o
can't be confused:

        Esto es una casa.   'This is a house.'
BUT:
        *Esta* casa es nueva. 'This house is new'

So the inanimate pronouns {esto, eso, aquello} don't need acutes.
Same goes for another common mistake: {tu} 'your' vs. {tu'} 'you'
is OK, but {ti} 'you(ACC.)' doesn't have an acute.


And Steg wrote:

> ...  What's the grammar problem with "Be'salas a las horas..." ?  I
> think i made it like that for the rhythm, actually.....there's an
> unmarked pause in the middle there: BEsalas (pause) a las HOras que
> PAsan.
Yes, it depends on how you read it. But it really sounds as if there's
one more beat than necessary. Probably because of the echoing effect
of {besALAS A LAS}.

The grammar thing is that _las horas_ is inanimate, and yet you use
the personal _a_ accusative. It's not *wrong*, since many people do
it; but dropping the _a_ would both ease the rhythm and 'clean' the
syntax. Now, *_Be'salas las horas_ is ungrammatical... but if you
insert a pause after the first word, it sounds like a weirdly beautiful
vocative, IMHO. Of course, it's your poem! :)


--Pablo Flores
  http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/index.html
  http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/draseleq.html