Seuna demonstratives
Contents
Here and there
| @onda | place |
| di | here, this place |
| de | there, that place |
| da | suffix * |
solbe = to drink, solbeda = a bar
Determinatives
Many languages have the form of their demonstrative pronoun (DP) and adnominal pronoun (AP) the same, and different from there demonstrative of place (DoP).*
| DP | AP | DoP | |||||||||
| English - | this | = | this | ǂ | here | ---- | that | = | that | ǂ | there |
| Finnish - | tämä | = | tämä | ǂ | tässä | ---- | tuo | = | tuo | ǂ | tuossa |
Side note - actually the derivation of the Finnish word "tässä" is pretty obvious. The phrase "in this place" would be rendered in Finnish "this(in) place(in)" ... where (in) represents the inessive case suffix. The second part of this phrase was found unnecessary so we get simply "this(in)" meaning "here". "this(in)" is actually "tämässä" but a bit of word-erosion gets us to "tässä".
Another side note - if we go far enough back we can see that "here" is also derived from "this". In Proto-Germanic "here" was "khir", which is *khi- (from PIE *ki- "this") + adverbial suffix -r.
Seuna, has a differs from English and Finnish as is shown below.
| DP | AP | DoP | |||
| Seuna - | todi | ǂ | di | = | di |
- I can not find a fancy term that would include the words "here" and "there" so I have made one up myself ... DoP.
Correlatives
Totality
All languages have a word meaning "all" and a word meaning "every".
(I am assuming here that "every" = "each". It makes things simpler)
1) "all" can be used to express totality of a mass noun ... i.e. all the water is polluted
2) "all" can be used to express totality of an object ... i.e. all the world
3) "all" can be used to express totality for members of a group ... i.e. all elephants have a trunk
4) "every" can be used to express individuality of members of a certain group ... i.e. The foreman must ensure that each operator has sufficient training to work safely.
In example 3) the inclusiveness, togetherness, cohesion of the group is focused on.
In example 4) the individuality, uniqueness of each member of a group is focused on.
Now it can be seen in example 3) that the meaning could equally well be expressed as "every elephant has a trunk". In fact the majority of times we use "every" or "all" (maybe 80% of the times) it doesn't matter which one we use. But English tends to use "every" for these either-or-situations. Other languages go the opposite way and use "all" (or whatever the equivalent to "all" is in their language, of course) for these either-or-situations. For example Swedish or Arabic. Indonesian and Thai use "every" for these either-or-situations.
"all" and "every" appear to be at either end of a continuum. However they do not mirror each others meaning or usage. For example in 1) and 2), "all" MUST be used. But at the other end of the spectrum there doesn't seen to be any 100% need to use "every". Instead there is an infinite number if situations with the importance of "individuality" varying for each one. In fact I tried to find a better example for 4) but couldn't (I settled for the above tho', because if "all" was used the meaning could have been "mean training" or "total training", which obviously wouldn't be enough to ensure safety).
A final though ... because "every" is used in so many situations, it maybe "individuality" meaning has got a bit watered down. So now people use "each and every" when they want to focus the "individuality". Maybe this is what happened in Old English, the word ælc (modern each) was watered down so people started using æfre ælc (ever-each) which in time became "every".
referring to facts and mini=narratives
The basic meaning of to is "it". But it can not be used everywhere that the English "it" can be used. For example ... "It is good that you can walk again". The "it" in this sentence would be todi in Seuna. For something that has not yet been introduced todi is used.
On the other hand if you were told "Peter can walk again" that you might reply "that is good". Seuna in this case follows the English pattern and you would use tode. So some fact or mini-narrative that has not as yet been introduced is referred to as todi, and some fact or mini-narrative that has already been introduced is referred to a tode.
When to is used alone it never refers to some fact or mini-narrative but always to an object (or animal).
old stuff
Sometimes the pronoun to can be used in places where "that" is used in English. For example if some people were discussing a house, and somebody says "I want to buy that house", "that house" would be to dwolo .
The construction - to noun -can never be used before the noun has been introduced.
Definiteness
Seuna tends to assume definiteness or as they say in linguistic jargon "definiteness is unmarked". To express indefiniteness you use the particle sa. (i.e. you mark the noun as indefinite by putting the particle sa in front of it.)
Side note - to and sa are part of a very small class of words that come before the noun.
Demonstatives pronouns
| to di | this |
| to de | that |
The demonstrative pronouns have a plural form.
| ton di | these |
| ton de | those |
The non-demonstatives non-human pronoun
| to | it, that (spoken of before) |
| ton | they, those (spoken of before) |
Other stuff
sana = someone sato = something
SA KI NA & KU other demonstratives ??
This set of particles form a logical group.
SA KI NA KU are used for both nouns and verbs. They precede both. For nouns SA KI NA KU have the meaning "some", "no", "that" and "all". For verbs SA KI NA KU have the meaning "sometimes", "never", " --- " and "always". If used singly (for example with a single word reply) they must be immediately followed by the word "do"
As - MAN IS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS - when these particles are used alone, they have the meanings ;-
SANA = somebody. some SATO = something KI = nobody KIA = nothing NA = he, she, it NIA = sequence of events just mentioned, NUA = sequence of events about to be mentioned KU = everybody KUA = everything
HU = who HUA = what
Note ;- SA = Does not indicate plurality, only indefiniteness. For plurality you must use the word ALKI.
TI HU & SA
set of particles form a group of word that are connected by usage. That is, many languages use the same word for two functions. It seems reasonable to assume that the word used for the interrogative function seeped into the indefinite function in some languages and into the indefinite function in other languages. We have a seperate word for the three functions.
relative particles interrogatives indefinites relative particles interrogatives indefinites relative particles interrogatives indefinites
TI HU SA
When the interrogative conflates with the indefinite, they have to be kept seperate somehow. We must be able to express WHO DID IT and SOMEBODY DID IT. (If the W question is always fronted and "Somebody did it" => "This was done by somebody")
Index
- Introduction to Seuna
- Seuna : Chapter 1
- Seuna word shape
- The script of Seuna
- Seuna sentence structure
- Seuna pronouns
- Seuna nouns
- Seuna verbs (1)
- Seuna adjectives
- Seuna demonstratives
- Seuna verbs (2)
- Asking a question in Seuna
- Seuna relative clauses
- Seuna verbs (3)
- Methods for deriving words in Seuna
- List of all Seuna derivational affixes
- Numbers in Seuna
- Naming people in Seuna
- The Seuna calendar
- Seuna units
