From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Tue Mar 05 2002 - 10:57:28 MST
> (Colin Hales <colin@versalog.com.au>):
> Lexeme nominative accusative reflexive weak genitive strong genitive
> (adjective) (posessive pronoun)
> she she her herself her hers
> he he him himself his his
>
> se se sem semself ser sems
> ve ve ver verself ver vis
> ey ey em emself eir eirs
> ley ley lem lemself leir leirs
>
> I'm still not happy with the "em" thing. It clashes with the colloquial
> usage: stack 'em, rack 'em and pack 'em, move 'em out, Send 'em down, Huey
> stick 'em up, knockin'em dead, if you cant beat 'em, join 'em
>
> The colloquial spoken usage somehow undermines the intent of the proper
> usage. One's youngster AI could get quite confused as well. (Anyone remember
> HIMY from Get Smart?)
Since that particular set all begin with vowels, you can create a whole
series of new sets (like your "l" set) for specific purposes by adding
an initial consonant (or cluster): let's say that "ley/lem/leir" is for
the "gender" of disembodied AIs; perhaps "vey/vem/veir" could be for
physical sentient beings for which human gender doesn't apply; "th" is
for plurals; and the base ey/em/eir set is for totally unspecified cases.
The overlap with colloquial "'em" is precisely what I like best about
the set: because it echos existing usage it's easier to learn and use,
and allows constructs like "(th)ey", analagous to "rock(s)". Of course,
signs at the spaceport will have monsters like "(l/v/z/d/b)ey".
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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