From a.rosta@ntlworld.com Sat Feb 16 18:12:20 2002 Return-Path: X-Sender: a.rosta@ntlworld.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_2); 17 Feb 2002 02:12:20 -0000 Received: (qmail 80075 invoked from network); 17 Feb 2002 02:12:20 -0000 Received: from unknown (216.115.97.172) by m10.grp.snv.yahoo.com with QMQP; 17 Feb 2002 02:12:20 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mta07-svc.ntlworld.com) (62.253.162.47) by mta2.grp.snv.yahoo.com with SMTP; 17 Feb 2002 02:12:20 -0000 Received: from andrew ([62.255.40.35]) by mta07-svc.ntlworld.com (InterMail vM.4.01.03.27 201-229-121-127-20010626) with SMTP id <20020217021218.QBOZ22101.mta07-svc.ntlworld.com@andrew> for ; Sun, 17 Feb 2002 02:12:18 +0000 To: Subject: RE: [lojban] Linguistic universals and Lojban Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 02:11:38 -0000 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: <02021602162704.02774@neofelis> From: "And Rosta" X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=77248971 X-Yahoo-Profile: andjamin Pierre: > I found a page http://ling.uni-konstanz.de:591/Universals/introduction.html > listing universals and am trying to correlate them to Lojban. Two are: > > In languages with prepositions the genitive almost always follows the > governing noun. > In languages with postpositions the genitive almost always precedes the > governing noun. > > Lojban has prepositions, not postpositions, but it is not at all obvious to > me what corresponds to a genitive construction. The Lojban noun cannot do > anything but form a sumti by adding "la" (or "lai" or "la'i") or form a > vocative phrase. It has no genitive. Most nounly things are done with verbs, > which don't have genitive either. Both "pe"-phrases and "be"-phrases can be > sometimes translated as a genitive, but they follow their heads. Does either > correspond to a genitive construction? If I had to label some Lojban construction as a 'genitive', I'd nominate "le MI cukta" and "le cukta PO mi". (Or is it po'e? The possessives in NE, anyway.) --And.