Seuna demonstratives

Here and there

da	place
di	here, this place
de	there, that place

Cross-language trends

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.

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

1. Introduction to Seuna
2. Seuna : Chapter 1
3. Seuna word shape
4. The script of Seuna
5. Seuna sentence structure
6. Seuna pronouns
7. Seuna nouns
8. Seuna verbs (1)
9. Seuna adjectives
10. Seuna demonstratives
11. Seuna verbs (2)
12. Asking a question in Seuna
13. Seuna relative clauses
14. Seuna verbs (3)
15. Methods for deriving words in Seuna
16. List of all Seuna derivational affixes
17. Numbers in Seuna
18. Naming people in Seuna
19. The Seuna calendar
20. Seuna units