Re: Korahamla lives!

En réponse à Amanda Babcock <langs@...>:

>
> Heheh :)  Thanks :)  I was having this issue with suffixes, see,
Did you see a specialist for that? ;)))

 where
> the whole "what is a word" question seemed to threaten to make long
> agglutinative words sort of, well, topologically indistinct from long
> analytical sentences (Japanese can do that to a person :)  I wanted
> there
> to be no question about what is and isn't a word...  Hence the infixes
> :)
>
For the problem of suffixes, you should take a look at my conlang Azak (there's
a grammar of it on the web, if you can read a bit of French :)) ). It goes all
the way, using only suffixes for all grammatical matters (even numbers are
suffixes :) ).

>
> I love Maggel.
Thanks!

  (Where's the stress on that?  I wonder if "love
> Maggel"
> would be "mamaggel" or "magaggel"...)
The stress is on the second syllable. It's pronounced
[m@'gE:l] :) . "magaggel"? I have to find a way to use this one ;)))) .

  Rather, I love the *idea* of
> Maggel,
> as I'm too timid to get to know the actual language :)
>
Don't worry, me too ;))) . Maggel can be scary in its own way :) .

>
> Oh dear.  I'm still confused about all that.  I meant topic like the
> topic
> marker "ha" in Japanese.
>
Well, I'd say (from what I know of Japanese), that "wa" (I use this semi-
phonetic transliteration :) ) corresponds to your |i-| topic marker: it refers
to new information, or at least to a topic different from the one before, and
which can thus be considered "new". Focus, on the other hand, needn't refer to
something new, and thus corresponds neatly to your |u-| marker. Note that
Japanese doesn't have anything to mark specifically the focus.

>
> A few are suffixes or prefixes :)  But yes, they're all derivational
> processes applied to nouns.  And they always get derived back into
> nouns before they can be used in a sentence.
>
Strange, but neat grammar! All-noun with a twist ;))) . And I like the way it
explicitely marks topic and comment. Langs explicitely marking topic are
common, but those marking comment are quite rare.

>
> I think it will refer to the original root noun embedded in the
> previous
> comment, which will, depending on the verb derivation that was applied
> to
> it, be the object of an action performed by the topic noun, the
> instrument
> by which the topic noun performed an action, the state that the topic
> noun
> is experiencing, etc.
>
I guess sentences will be as difficult to parse as nouns :))) .

>
>         iJohn jo-apple.eat[AGT] we-explosion.undergo[PAT]
>         John eats the apple and explodes
>
> whereas if the apple exploded, it would be
>
>         iJohn jo-apple.eat[AGT] su-explosion.undergo[PAT]
>         John eats the apple and it explodes
>
Interesting way to handle references... Nothing I ever saw anywhere. And in my
mouth, it's a big compliment ;)))) .

>
> I guess I have to decide this.  I'll say currently not, which will
> require
> some mental adjustment after all the exposure to Japanese :)
>
LOL, talk about a pro-drop language :))) . In Japanese you can drop nearly
everything out ;))) .

>
> On the other hand, if I need to have separate active and passive (and
> instrumental, and stuff) verb forms for every verb, I could run out of
> phonemes pretty quick :)
>
LOL

>
> Oh, neat!  How does this work?
>
Well, you can find examples on my webpage. It's too late here for me to begin
even a concise explanation on overdeclination in Moten, but if you can't find
enough info on my webpage, I will try to post something about it tomorrow :) .

> My automated script that checks for ambiguously derived words has a
> big
> problem with applying "could" and "must" consecutively, since they
> infix
> at opposite ends of a word and there's no trace which was applied
> first.
> I've rationalized that they'd never *be* applied consecutively, so the
> ambiguity is ok.  But now I feel I must read up on overdeclination,
> just
> in case it could give me any ideas about why I would *want* to apply
> consecutive modals to a verb...
>
It may indeed be a good idea, especially seen the verbal system of Moten ;))) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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