Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Typologic survey, part II

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Wednesday, January 31, 2001, 4:48
>---- PART II Conlang Typlogic Survey 2001 ---- > >House-keeping data > >Name of the participating conlang: >(same as on part I please :) )
Kash
>2: Order of genitive (G), and noun (N) >That is: Possessor/owner and possession/owned thing
>If there aren't a way to show this in the language, please say so. >If there is a way... >Is the order GN, NG or both?
NG
>How is it shown? >- Through simple juxtaposition? (no extra marking anywhere)
Possible but frowned upon.
>- With a suffix on the G, the N, both?
Suffix on the G. 'puna shenji/yi' Shenji's house. Pronominal poss. suffix on the N: 'puna/ni' his house
>[Example: >English is both GN and NG, >NG is shown by separating with 'of', e.g. "strength of lions" >GN is shown by suffixing a form of <'s> to the G, e.g. "lions' strength"] > >3: Order of adjective (A) and noun (N)
NA; but quantifiers QN
>Does the language have a closed class of adjectives? No.
>If there is not a separate open adjective-class, what type of words do >the work of adjectives, verbs or nouns?
Adj. are basically verbs. The bare base form is used attibutively, the conjugated form predicatively. 'puna raka' a big house vs. 'puna(ni) ya/raka/sa' his/the house was big.
> >Regardless of being a separate class or not: >How are they similar, how do they differ from verbs and nouns?
Similar: all adj. can be conjugated like verbs. Differ: not all bare verb stems can be used attibutively: ya/cosa 'he goes', pehan cosa 'last year'; ya/shindi 'he speaks', sende shindi '(the) spoken language'. It is difficult to add modifiers to verbs in this usage; in 'the language spoken by Terrans', 'spoken by Terrans' would have to be a relative clause. Differ from nouns: cannot take case endings, unless specifically nominalized by an affix, e.g. adj. hivus 'skillful' > noun kakivus (agentive kañ-) 'craftsman'
>Can they take a copula (that is: need/don't need equivalent of "to be")?
Not needed.