>Dear Florent,
>
>> 2.Tva.m saalaaya.m kaññaana.m odana.m pacaahi.
>> you / [in] hall / [for] girls / rice / cookest thou
>> Cook the rice in the hall for the girls!
>I would suggest that this might be:
> Cook the rice for the girls in the hall!
>
>If it was the former, the 'saalaaya.m' would probably be placed closer
>to the parts of the sentence it qualifies. Also it seems to make more
>sense this way - one would cook in the kitchen and take the food to
>the hall.

Hi John, Florent and group,

This is interesting and touches on a question about syntax that I still don't have a clear answer to.

I would read the above Florent's way, that the cooking takes place in the hall (saalaaya.m). For the locative saalaaya.m to qualify the girls, I would want to see it linked in by some sort of verbal action (such as a participle) connected with the girls. For example: saalaay.m nisinnaana.m kaññaana.m.

However I am not sure if this is necessary, or if you can have a free locative or other case that modifies a noun without any verbal action (again, usually in participial form) creating a subordinated kaaraka relationship. I really should have looked into this properly a long time ago, but I've been hoping for examples to just turn up in my reading. So far I haven't noticed any.

A second point is that the above could also be read 'cook the girls' rice in the hall'. I.e. the rice that the girls have brought. This seems like a fairly natural alternative to me, since odana.m directly follows kaññaana.m.

best regards,

/Rett