This is another bit of fun from the constructed languages mailing list. It came in on the tail of the old woman without a stick, when someone said that you can't say "All of us aren't going to the store". He meant in English, and I argued that it's perfectly possible to say it in Valdyan.
To establish unmarked word order, we do go somewhere first. It's more usual in Valdyas to go to the market, so let's go there:
Anini alea trynyes le denayn 1p-S all-A market-ill-s RFL put-1p-PRS
"All of us are going to the market"
The use of le dena "to put oneself" rather than fara "to go to" implies that we intend to end up right in the middle of the market, ready to buy some vittles.
Let's see what happens if we're not going:
Anini nalea trynyes na le denayn 1p-S none-A market-ill-s NEG RFL put-1p-PRS
"None of us are going to the market"
That is, every one of us decided for him/herself not to go. If we negate only the verb, and not its subject, we get the sentence that seems to be impossible in English:
Anini alea trynyes na le denayn 1p-S all-A market-ill-s NEG RFL put-1p-PRS
"All of us aren't going to the market"
That is, all of us collectively, and perhaps a little defiantly, decided not to go.
If we want to negate only the subject, we can't say
? Anini nalea trynyes le denayn 1p-S none-A market-ill-s RFL put-1p-PRS
"None of us are going to the market"
because that would mean that there's a specific nobody who is going to the market, or rather several specific nobodies who are some of "us".
The sensible grammatical way to negate the subject is, of course:
Ni anini alea trynyes (na) le denayn NEG 1p-S all-A market-ill-s NEG RFL put-1p-PRS
"Not all of us are going to the market"
with optional na for the verb. This means that at the very least some of us are not going to the market (otherwise "all of us" would be going) and some of us may be going after all.If we negate the goal:
Anini alea ni trynyes na le denayn 1p-S all-A NEG market-ill-s NEG RFL put-1p-PRS
"It's not to the market that all of us are going"
we may be going to the tavern instead, but it's clear that we're going somewhere together. It can do without na:
Anini alea ni trynyes le denayn 1p-S all-A NEG market-ill-s RFL put-1p-PRS
"It's not to the market that all of us are going"
meaning the same thing, perhaps putting slightly more emphasis on the fact that we are going somewhere. Whether or not to negate the verb is a matter of dialect and personal choice; pedants and people from the north (some would say that's a tautology) will put na in more often.
Restyled 08-Sep-2002