Re: New language grammar--what needs work?

On 11/22/05, veritosproject@gmail.com <veritosproject@...> wrote:

> Vowels: a (_e_lbow), e (_A_labama), i (V_ea_l), o (fi: ö), u (fi: y)
Curious!  All front vowels and no back vowels?

Why not represent /&/ with |a| and /E/ with |e|?

> Dipthongs: ei, oi, uo
That is, I suppose, /E2/, /2j/, /y2/?

> Consonants: c (s), v (f), h (_kh_ochu), l, m, n, s (sh), t (th)
All fricatives and nasal, and no stops?  I like the orthography,
anyway.

> Subject and object can be skipped if they can be filled by endings in the verb.
I think this is called "pro-drop".

> plurality:
> *specifying a number is allowed and indicates that number of objects.
> *leave it out to specify singular.
> *quantity listings, like "few" or "many", are used for plurals
So are there just the two number marks -- paucal and plural
-- or is there a large (or even open-ended) set of quantifier
morphemes that can fit in between the noun radical
and the case ending?  Could you put in quantifiers
like "none", "all", "most of them", "enough", "enough", etc.,
and/or specific numbers like "two", "seventeen", or "pi"?

> Cases: As many or as few of these cases as needed can be used.  The
> arrangement of these cases allows several ideas in each sentence.
>
> Subject: Indicates the subject of the sentence.
> Object: Indicates the object of the sentence.
This doesn't really tell us whether the language is nominative
or ergative or active or what.  If an entity is described as being
in a certain state or "doing" something involuntary like sleeping,
would the noun referring to the entity be in the subject or object case?
What if some entity is described as doing something
voluntary described by an intransitive verb?

> Method: Indicates the method of the sentence.
The method by which the action of the verb is done?

> Temporal: Indicates the time of the sentence.
> Assistive: Indicates an object used to help perform the action.
I think this is usually called "instrumental case".

> Obstructive: Indicates an object that hindered the action.
Interesting.  Could you use this case both
in sentences like "I tried to read but the light(OBSTR)
was too dim" and "I managed to read it although
the light-OBSTR was fairly dim"?

> Cause: Indicates the cause of the action.
> Result: Indicates the effect of the action.
> Means: How the action happened.
How is this different from Method case?


> English:
> Because I ran out of gas, I had to run a mile through the woods to the
> bus stop this morning, and take the bus to work.  The end result was
> that I was covered in sweat.
> Equivalent with cases
> car-empty-gas-CAUSE-OBSTRUCTIVE I-SUBJECT run
> distance-long-woods-inside-MEANS stop-bus-OBJECT morning-TEMPORAL
> work-arrival-RESULT me-covering-sweat-RESULT
Hmmm... here the noun in the obstructive case is not hindering the actual
action of the sentence, but hindering some other implied action
which you would have preferred to be performing (driving) instead of running
through the woods etc.

> The following tenses exist: I, you, they, the-object-of-this-sentence,
> the-subject-of-this-sentence.  They must also be used with pronouns if
> pluralized.
Usually tense refers to the time when the action
of the verb takes place, sometimes also to the way
the action is distributed through time (though the latter is
more properly called aspect, but many languages mark
both of them with the same morphemes).

> A verb consists of the following structure:
>
> verb root + all applicable tense markers + subject tense marker +
> object tense marker.
>
> Tense markers consist of the following: past, present, future,
> conditional, subjunctive, negative, command.
OK... separate morphemes for each of those, and they
can be combined as needed?  Some of those are actually
mood markers rather than tense markers.  Is there a
required order to combine them in?
E.g. is

run-PRS-NEG-CMD

equally valid as

run-NEG-CMD-PRS

> Subject and object tense markers refer to the real subject or object.
> If either of these is simply I, you, or they, a separate pronoun is
> not necessary.  If they are pluralized or refer to a separate item in
> the sentence, they must be marked as such.
I think these are called "personal endings" (maybe there's a better
term) -- they're not tense markers, anyway.  Some example
sentences would help clarify what you mean about
their use.

> Subclauses: each subclause begins and ends with a particle.
What kind of particle?  Are there different particles for
marking subclauses with different relationships to
the main clause, or with different evidentiality/validationality/
etc?

> Adverbs are added to the verb root.
Neat.

--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/gzb/gzb.htm
...Mind the gmail Reply-to: field

Reply