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Rob Speer wrote: > > On Fri, Apr 05, 2002 at 10:14:19PM -0800, Mike Wright wrote: > > Are the following correct? > > > > Cisa hon. > > This (is a) book. > > The 'sa' makes the 'ci' modify 'hon'. So I'd say that "cisa hon" means > "this book" and "ci hon" means "this is a book". > > > Does a preceding "sa" render the "t-" word unnecessary? > > > > Gosa zopam kiq. vx. Gosa te zopam kiq. > > My father (is a) king. > > Sounds right to me. > > > Gosa zopam to kiq. > > My father (is) the king. > > This doesn't seem like the kind of situation where you can leave out > 'bi'. That just seems to be two different noun phrases. "My father, the > king." > > What you're doing here is making 'to kiq' into another verb phrase, "is > the king". The point of the t- words should be to make something into a > noun. So, we can say: Ci hon. This (is [a/the]) book. But not: *Ci to hon. This (is) the book. It hardly seems worthwhile to do away with the copula in only a very limited set of sentences. I begin to see that the lack of a copula in Malay is supported by its use of head-modifier structures. Malay: Ini buku. this book This is a book. Ini buku besar. this book-big This is a big book. buku ini book-this this book Buku ini besar. book-this big This book is big. buku besar ini book-big--this this big book Buku besar ini buku saya. book-big--this book-me This big book is my book. I don't think this kind of simplicity could be maintained with modifier-head structures in the absence of the copula. Arabic (Classical Arabic, at least) has case endings and number, as well as a definite article, <al->, that is used in ways that elucidate the relationships among nouns and adjectives. Adjectives follow nouns, but demonstratives don't. Hadha kitaab. this book This is a book. Hadha kitaab kabiir. this book-big This is a big book. hadha al-kitaab this-the-book this book Hadha al-kitaab kabiir. this-the-book big. This book is big. kitaab kabiir book big big book Al-kitaab kabiir. The-book big. The book is big. al-kitaab al-kabiir the-book--the-big the big book Al-kitaab al-kabiir jamiil. the-book--the-big pretty The big book is pretty. -- Mike Wright http://www.CoastalFog.net ____________________________________________________________ "The difference between theory and practice is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice, however, there is." -- Anonymous