Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Subject: Re: One point against Esperanto
Message-ID: <D658E5.887@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <D5ICH0.Ho1@indirect.com> <DJOHNSON.95Mar17193458@arnold.ucsd.edu>
Distribution: inet
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 1995 09:15:38 GMT
Lines: 39

In article <DJOHNSON.95Mar17193458@arnold.ucsd.edu> djohnson@arnold.ucsd.edu (Darin Johnson) writes:
>[...] there are more than two cases.  For instance, there are 4 cases
>in "the boy in the yard hit the ball with the stick".  The other cases
>are distinguished by particles.

Prepositions.

>(of course, in Esperanto, because it is regular, one can treat the
>accusative case as an example of an "n" particle that comes after the
>noun, as opposed to a preposition that comes before)

No, one can not, because Esperanto has case agreement.  A postpositional
phrase only contains one occurrence of its head.  A case affix can occur
any number of times in a noun phrase (say, on the head noun and all of
its adjectival modifiers).  See how little strokes fell great oaks?

>How many other languages use the accusative case,

Many languages have *an* accusative case, that is, something that shares
a number of superficial features with the Latin accusative case.

Few languages have *the* accusative case, that is, something that shares
all syntactic and semantic features of the Latin accusative case.

>and if they do don't they also have lots of other noun cases to go along?

Lots?  Not necessarily.  Some?  Definitely.

>Oh well, my French teacher (Mrs French) always said "to each their own". 

If that were so, sci.lang might as well not exist, since it makes
little sense to subject to scientific examination something which
varies randomly.

-- 
`"Na, na ... ah mean, *no wey*, wi aw due respect, ma lady," stammers Joe.'
Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk)    (J Stuart, _Auld Testament Tales_)
* Centre for Cognitive Science,  2 Buccleuch Place,   Edinburgh EH8 9LW,  UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK
