Pronoun sets
adapted from a 6 May 1997 post by Kapitano Eglefino
Don Blaheda wrote:
Another problem with sexual terminology (I've heard it referred to
as "the gay porn problem", on this list I think) is that since
English doesn't have strong reflexive pronouns, sentences dealing
with gay relationships are typically ambiguous. ("He put his hand
on his thigh....")
One of my many abortive conlangs was designed to avoid this kind
of ambiguity. I introduced a set of pronouns which could be used
anaphorically or (less usually) cataphorically. These referred to
such things as:
- The agent of the previous sentence.
- The action (in gerund form) of the previous sentence.
- The patient of the previous sentence.
- The object of the subordinate clause or prepositional phrase
qualifying the agent of the previous sentence.
- The object of the subordinate clause of prepositional phrase
qualifying the agent of the previous sentence.
- The gerund form of the adverb qualifying the main verb
in the previous sentence.
In another version I developed a way of referring to:
- The nominative noun-phrase
- The accusative NP
- The dative NP
- The genitive NP
- The allative NP
...etc. I think the second system is more useful, and if developed
might even be a useful part of an auxlang. OTOH, you can
probably see why I dropped the idea.
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Copyright © 1997, Maurizio M. Gavioli,
Last updated: 14 Oct., 1997