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Re: [katanda] "modality" of nouns



stefo,
in the sentence "Ponko fa taynko toynxe conti to."
"taynko toynxe conti to" is the focus (and direct object) of the verb "ponko" and it means "the painter imagined a bus".  so the whole sentence literally means "i wanted (that) the painter imagined a bus" and more idiomatically "i wanted the painter to imagine a bus".  to me it means what it's supposed to mean.

and i don't understand why you switch the order of the clauses.  

stevo


In a message dated 2003-10-28 5:16:37 AM Eastern Standard Time, sts@hidden.email writes:


i shorten it to:
I wanted the painter to imagine a bus.
Ponko fa taynko toynxe conti to.

as written in the mti, it seems to mean:
"The painter imagined a bus." + "I wanted that."

This has two deviations from what is meant:
1. The painter may not have imagined any bus at all, as this situation is
only wanted by me. Therefore, the sentence "The painter imagined a bus" must
be linked as a modality-argument to the verb "wanted".
2. What's the imagination about? As I understand it, it's not about "the"
bus and not about "a" bus, meaning "a bus that exists or existed in this
world". It's about a bus that exists only in the imagination. It's seems
that there should be some kind of modality for nouns as well. "to" is
already a modality (also lu-, li- and <nil> for "the"), and now we need a
modality for a noun that exists only according to the main verb, so as a
modality-argument. ("the" = <nil> indicates that the noun exists
already in the consciousnes of the speaker and the listener, which
isn't more weird than the idea of an article which indicates that the
thing meant by the noun exists only in the event or situation meant
by the main verb.)

->

I wanted the painter to imagine a bus.
want
     patient: I
     focus: the painter
     modality-argument: imagine (same subject as main-verb focus)
           modality-argument: bus

sts.