Re: How many verbs?

On Monday 12 July 2004 12:10, Gary Shannon wrote:
> This is just a random thought, but I was wondering if
> there were any natlangs with this feature that
> occurred to me for use in a conlang.  The number of
> verbs in the language would be very small, covering
> only the most basic form of a particular action and
> the details would be provided by an adverb-like word
> that narrowed down the meaning of the verb.
>
> For example, the language would not have the verbs "to
> run" or "to walk", but would use adverbs with the verb
> "to move" giving, for example: "to move 'runly'" or
> "to move 'walkly'".  These adverbs could then be
> applied to other verbs to create idioms unique to the
> language like: (using English words)
>
> This boy act-he excitedly too-much did, and speak-he
> runly did.  Speak-I requestly did, that speak-he
> walkly do.
>
> By using the adverbs "runly" and "walkly" in different
> contexts their meanings would somewhat broader and
> more versatile, thus keeping the number of such
> special adverbs reasonably small as well.
>
> So I can't help but wonder how small a set of verbs
> would constitute a useful set.  I'm not thinking of
> minimalism for its own sake, but to create as many
> verbs as would be useful without violating the spirit
> of not creating a new verb when a verb + adverb would
> do the job.  A mere 10 verbs and 10 adverbs would give
> 100 verb + adverb combinations possibly taking over
> for 100 separate English verbs, or possibly creating
> novel meanings not expressible in English without some
> circumlocution.
>
> --gary
Kélen has 4 'verbs' (called 'relationals'). They are LA, which denotes the
existence of something; NI, which denotes a change-in-state; SE, which
denotes a transaction or something with a source and/or a goal; and PA which
denotes containment or a whole/part relationship.

LA is the most basic. It's used for the equivalent of 'there is' sentences,
for equating two or more things (i.e 'a bowl', 'a red thing' => 'bowl is
red'), and for location using the particle sú ('at'), as in
la le sú-mára    or     la le sú jaláíñ
LA I at-home	or	LA I at/on hill
I am at home.	or	I am on the hill.

NI, expressing change of state, gets used for verbs of motion. NI + rá ('to')
makes 'go' and NI + rú ('from') makes 'come'. To that, one can add locative
modifiers (mé 'in', ól 'up', etc.) or adverbs (which are in a state of flux,
sorry.)

órra-ñi le rá-mára	or 	órra-ñi le rá jaláíñ ól
past-NI I to-home	or	past-NI I to hill up
I went home.		or	I went uphill.

SE is far more complicated. it's used for experiencing, transactions, and
quoting (SE+ien) mostly.

sele análnen
se+1ps.goal happiness
I am happy. (I am experiencing happiness)

tele jaxíra
se/past+1ps.goal noise
I heard a noise.

temle jacóna
se/past+3ps.source+1ps.goal kiss
She gave me a kiss.

telme ien héja ñi rá péxa cí
se/past+1ps.source+3ps.goal QUOT. ought/should NI to away COMM*.
I told her (she) ought to go away.
*(cí is a commissive marker, a polite imperative among other things.)

PA is used when one noun is a subset of another...

pa le análnen
PA (I (happiness))
I am happy. (I am the epitome of happiness. I am the standard by which all
others are measured. (ok, so that works better for 'beautiful' if you're Snow
White's step-mother.))

pa le ankélen ansóri pé
PA (I  (Kélen (words (few))))
I don't speak Kélen.

pa le ankélen ansóri
PA (I  (Kélen (words)))
I speak/know/understand Kélen.

It's amazing how much can be carried by context.

My ability to come up with example sentences is sadly limited. If you have
things you want me to translate, let me know & I'll do my best.

-S
--
Sylvia Sotomayor
sylvia1@ix.netcom.com
kelen@ix.netcom.com

Kélen language info can be found at:
http://home.netcom.com/~sylvia1/Kelen/kelen.html

This post may contain the following:
á (a-acute)  é (e-acute)  í (i-acute)
ó (o-acute)  ú (u-acute)  ñ (n-tilde)

áe ñarra anmárienne cí áe reharra anmárienne lá;

Reply