Re: question - for organizing a long-delayed language

Rodlox responded to my writing:
> By giving this type of entry, you've shown that you want to
> separate different definitions for a word.  That's good.  Yet,
> the entries *within* your definitions just don't seem to gel.
with:
<<
sorry
 >>

No, no, that wasn't the point.  The point was if the definitions
I pointed out *were* different, then they should be in different
entries.  If not, I wanted to know how they fit together--the
latter would be very interesting if you could explain it.

Rodlox:
<<
well, in the examples I gave, it ceased to be purely prefixing.
 >>

Then, as Joseph said, in your dictionary you need to indicate
that one is a prefix and one is a suffix.  Otherwise, how would
you remember, and how would anyone else reading the dictionary
be able to tell?

Rodlox:
<<
yes to the latter.
 >>

This was indicating the the words "to revere 10" and "to lack 10"
are different enough (and non-productive enough, I assume) to
warrant separate dictionary entries.  That's fine.  Now: What
do they *mean*?  I can't make heads or tails out of the English
phrase "to revere ten".

Rodlox:
<<
but, and this is where I get puzzled, how does one determine which
one is
indicated in a sentance.
 >>

Context usually is what determines what something means
when there are competing definitions.  A good dictionary will
list examples sentences.  However, morphology can also help
to determine which word you have.  So, for example, if one
definition of /WeIq/ is "clan", then it would have nominal
morphology, which would automatically distinguish it from
the other seemingly verbal definitions.  For the other definitions,
context will determine that you mean, say, "Turn and look at
me" and not "Conquer and look at me".  Also, though, sometimes
morphology can help out again.  For example, "to tremble
ecstatically" probably won't take an object, whereas "conquer"
will.  So if you see a verb with an object, that'll rule out definition
(5) [from the previous e-mail].  With enough context, true
ambiguity is hard to construct.

Rodlox responded:
<<
> A language question, though: How do you predict when an
> incorporated object comes before or after the noun?
>
I don't...not yet....hence my asking.
 >>

This is something that you the language creator need to answer.

-David
*******************************************************************
"A male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/