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Re: Simple translation exercise?

From:Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>
Date:Saturday, June 14, 2003, 6:02
Quoting Roger Mills <romilly@...>:

> OnTopic: Perhaps I'm overly literal-minded, but if you're trying to devise > or figure out the grammar of your language, you have to start with _really_ > simple (indeed, simple-minded) sentences-- > (Name) ran. (name) went to (place). Where is (name/place)?, (name) saw > (name/object), (name) gave (object) to (name) and so on. Galba agricola > est, and it's all uphill from there.
I dunno. I find that a certain amount of knowledge about typological tendencies and universals helps out a lot. Got an SOV language? You have bunches of parameters already set out for you right there, if you want to follow those lines. Detailed study of some wacky natural language also helps. ========================================================================= Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally, Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of 1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter. Chicago, IL 60637