Re: Kioshu update, plea for help.

* Jeff Goguen said on 2002-10-11 11:14:18 +0200
> Hello everybody!
<insert (still) non-existent greeting from own conlang here> Jeff!

> I'm having trouble figuring out how to represent certain
> verbals. To cite an example from
> http://www.uottawa.ca/
>    /academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/verbals.html#verbal
>
> Building a house is complicated.
>
> Okay...now "building" is the gerund of the verb "to build", it turns
> it into a noun. In this case, though, it takes a direct object in the
> form of the noun phrase "a house". Right now, Kioshu does not have a
> gerund, and I don't think I necessarily want it to. However I figure
> this out, it will probably involve the infinitive, i.e.:
>
> To build a house is complicated.
>
> Okay...so, lets look at this example and why it gets complicated in
> Kioshu.
>
> to build = leugi
> house = uosh
> complicated = peni'io-
> to be = tivosh
> general annex ("The subject verbs the object.") = nik
>
> I could say:
> Uosh nik peni'ioleugi tivosh.
>
> Which literally translates to:
> A house is complicated to build.
>
> Now...this seems to be the optimal solution of everything I've
> thought, but is "To build a house is complicated." the same sentence
> as "A house is complicated to build."?
The real difference is on what is emphasized; compare and contrast:

to build a N1 is A1
a house is A1 to V1

I wouldn't say they are the same, at least not in English, but they
might be in your language; that's up to you to define :) AFMCL,
emphasis/focusing is done with a prefix.

> [..] anything below this is just inane babble.
Nah! B'sides, inane babble can be fun.

> [..] here are some other things that pose even larger problems:
>
> Peni'ioleugi uosh [tivosh].
>
> Which "technically" literally translates to:
> To build a house is complicated.
>
> [..] "a house" is supposed to be the direct object of "to build"
> and by Kioshu rules it doesn't appear to be one in this sentence. This
> is because of Kioshu's SOV sentence structure.
>
> Uosh peni'ioleugi [tivosh].
>
> Again, technically literally translates to:
> To build a house is complicated.
>
> So what's my problem with this one? To be honest, I'm not really
> sure.
How about compounding? /me likes compounding

peni'iouoshleugi [tivosh]
"House-building is complicated"

Or lets call it object-incorporation:

peni'ioleugiuosh [tivosh]
"complicated building-of-house is"

You might need some other annex here though.


t.