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From: jcf@world.std.com (Joseph C Fineman)
Subject: Re: Tendency of Inflections to Disappear - Why?
Message-ID: <Dv4Ct5.4s4@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <4suk93$pob@carrera.intergate.bc.ca> <4sv017$2oa@seagoon.newcastle.edu.au> <4t2do8$nc_009@actrix.gen.nz> <4t82hp$46i@ss1.cam.nist.gov>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 21:53:28 GMT
Lines: 24

koontz@cam.nist.gov (John E Koontz) writes:

>For example, the usual sources for case endings are:

>a) noun + adposition => noun + case ending

>b) noun in genitive form + noun expressing location

If that is the explanation, then how do the different declensions get
started?  In Russian, e.g., there is a special set of endings for
attributive adjectives, which bears no resemblance to the noun endings
except in the nominative case.  Who decided that?  How did it come
about that -a marks the nominative singular of feminine nouns, but the
genitive singular of masculine & neuter nouns, and the nominative
plural of neuter & _some_ masculine nouns; whereas the zero ending (a
bare consonant) marks the nominative singular of masculine nouns, but
the genitive plural of feminine & neuter nouns?  Is there an actual
model that explains all that as the absorption & wearing down of
postpositions?  My own theory is that all this stuff was invented by a
whimsical bully who had happened to become his tribe's god %^).
-- 
        Joe Fineman             jcf@world.std.com
        495 Pleasant St., #1    (617) 324-6899
        Malden, MA 02148
