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Rob Speer wrote: > > On Mon, Mar 04, 2002 at 07:58:58AM -0700, Rex May - Baloo wrote: > > If I know what you mean here, this is where disambiguating particles can > > show up. > > > > Xipe hamer kan. Woman hammers dog. > > > > We can make it clearer thus. > > > > Xipe da hamer te kan. > > I would hope so. This usage worries me quite a bit, because it would > basically be ambiguous every time. What does it mean when you use a noun > without a t-clause? Is it definite, indefinite, or simply vague? Should > this really be standard usage (as opposed to only being used where > brevity is key)? [...] Not to speak for Rex, but the Mandarin model, on which the Ceqli syntax is partly based, does not have obligatory gender, tense, person (other than in pronouns), number (other than in pronouns), definiteness, or aspect. The speaker decides when such categories need to be made explicit. In Mandarin, the main method for doing this is to add lexical items, with particles being used mostly for aspect. So, to express tense, words such as "already", "will", "yesterday", "next month", and so on are added at the speaker's discretion. To express number, we just add words like "many/much", "few/little", "some", "one", "three", and so on. There are no articles at all. When definiteness is required, we use "this", "these", "that", and "those". I would say that there is a default in this case, which is the indefinite. Contrast English, where we find ourselves saying things like "Each student must use a combination lock for his/her locker or lockers." It sometimes requires a bit of thought to avoid such clunkiness. English is a bit like those old computer programs where the user/users sat and performed the task/tasks that she/he/they was/were instructed to perform by the computer. This was replaced by a model where the user is in charge most of the time. In Mandarin, at least to some extent, the speaker is in charge of deciding what needs to be expressed, because the speaker, presumably, is capable of judging when the context permits the omission of certain kinds of specifiers. -- Mike Wright http://www.CoastalFog.net _____________________________________________________ "China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese." -- Charles de Gaulle