--- In cybalist@..., CeiSerith@... wrote:
> I know that in languages such as PIE adjectives are inflected
for case,
> number, and gender of the noun to which they refer. But what if
the noun is
> unspecified or even unknown? The situation I am thinking of is
when it is
> used with an imperative of "to be": "Be afraid. Be very afraid."
Are we to
> attempt to determine the gender and number of the person who must
be fearful?
> And in any case, what would be the case?
>
> David Fickett-Wilbar
Yes. You will need the number for the verb. In Semitic languages
you will also need the gender for the verb. Languages have rules for
handling mixed sex groups and individuals of unknown sex. It gets
more complicated when you have to determine how respectful to be, but
that is no more difficult than choosing the correct second person
pronoun.
However, I can't think off-hand of an example with people where you
would have a choice of more than three options for the gender. (In
Old English a mixed male and female group would require the neuter.)
The case rule depends on the language, but as far as I am aware the
rule is the same as for a normal adjective complement. PIE is
simple - you choose the nominative. Russian has a special form for
predicative adjectives - case is not really the issue. Hebrew uses
the absolute, unless the adjective is part of a larger construct.
(I'm not sure whether you can use 'be' + adjective in an imperative
in Hebrew - I think it would be far more natural to use a verb.) For
a noun complement Classical Arabic uses the accusative, like normal
English; I am not sure about adjective complements.
I don't know what the complications are for giving orders to
inanimate objects are in PIE. You would be well advised only to give
orders to animate objects, and of course matters would be simpler if
you rephrased the command to use a verb instead of an adjective, for
in PIE you would not have to decide the gender.
I can't remember whether definiteness also has to be decided, or
whether the choice is always fixed automatically. That was not an
issue for PIE.
Richard.