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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Degenerating languages
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References: <3nmvo3$is5@sunburst.ccs.yorku.ca> <3ojvqu$ohv@epx.cis.umn.edu> <D88u15.BGp@midway.uchicago.edu> <3ouo6o$3c6@cville-srv.wam.umd.edu>
Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 05:01:14 GMT
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In article <3ouo6o$3c6@cville-srv.wam.umd.edu>,
What-the-Hell <peabody@wam.umd.edu> wrote:
>Daniel von Brighoff (deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu) wrote:
>: In article <3ojvqu$ohv@epx.cis.umn.edu>,
>: Larisa Migachyov <miga0003@maroon.tc.umn.edu> wrote:

>: >I always wondered - how many cases does Chinese have?
>
>: None.  Like English.  
>
>Not entirely true.  English does have at least two (common and 
>possessive) for regular nouns and three (subjective, objective, and 
>possessive) for pronouns. 

I was considering only of noun cases when I said "None."  The status
of the possessive case is debatable for most forms of modern English.
After all, the possessive marker /'s/ can follow phrases (e.g. "The 
guy who works with me's coat is still here.") as well as nouns, making
it more like the Chinese morpheme "de" than, say, the German "genitive
s."

> Chinese has one word to do the job of all functions of both pronoun 
> and noun.

???????

> Whereas the cases in English follow 
>a non-periphrasic paradigm (i.e  ball (c), ball's (p) ["ball's" from 
>Middle English "balles"], Chinese has no inflection (i.e. wo3 "I, me, mine")
>say for the possessive adjectives (i.e wo3 de "my").

First of all, wo3de means "mine" as well as "my."  Second, the "de" is 
elided only before nouns considered intimately linked with the possessor, 
such as family terms.  So, wo3 ai4ren "my lover/spouse", but wo3 de qian2 
"my money."


-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
