Re: Figure This Out
| From: | Jeffrey Jones <jsjonesmiami@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Wednesday, April 12, 2006, 23:40 |
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On Wed, 12 Apr 2006 14:37:29 -0700, Arthaey Angosii <arthaey@...>
wrote:
> Dominant word order appears to be VSO, morphology agglutinating.
>
> My proposed wordlist:
> ap "here" no, but I'm glad you included "here"
> etxa "want" yes
> fo "PST" yes
> Hwan "John" yes
> kan "see" yes
> ko "I" yes
> kwe "POSS"
> mama "mother" yes
> pa "OBJ" complementizer
> pi "FUT" yes
> suna "sleep," "sleeping" yes
> tok "you" given the erroneous text, yes, but see the correction
> totz "us"
> tuad "FOC"
> tuperu "dog" "the dog"
> tzi "we" yes
>
> I don't know what to call pa-, so I've glossed it as OBJ. But it also
> seems to mark secondary verbs, as in "Juan wants to see," etxa Hwan
> pakan. (Can kan "see" be intransitive in this language? What is this
> language's name, anyhow?)
|pa| is a complementizer. A given stem is either transitive, intransitive,
or ditransitive. The language doesn't have a name yet; I've been calling it
Delta. Suggestions are welcome!
> As for -kwe, which I've glossed as POSS, it's only translated into an
> English possessive once, in 1. But in 4 and 5, it can't mean just OBJ,
> unless it is in fact redundant with pa-, as in pakankwe.
>
> I'm not sure what tuad- is technically called. I've glossed it as FOC
> (focus).
Good, but not correct.
>Emaelivpeith Jeff Jones 'sa <jsjonesmiami@...>:
>> 1. fokan Hwan mamakwe
>> Juan saw his mother.
>
>1) fo-kan Hwan mama-kwe
> PST.see Juan mother.POSS
>
>> 2. kanko pasuna tuperu
>> I see the dog sleeping.
>> 3. kopisuna
>> I'll sleep (sometime).
>
>The similiarity between these two is -suna, which must mean "sleep."
>
>2) kan-ko pa-suna tuperu
> see.I OBJ.sleep dog
>
>3) ko-pi-suna
> I.FUT.sleep
>
>> 4. etxa Hwan pakankwe tuperu
>> Juan wants to see the dog.
>> 5. Hwan tuadetxa pakankwe tuperu
>> It's Juan that wants to see the dog.
>
> The similarities between these two are "Hwan (-)etxa pakankwe tuperu."
> The change of word order and the addition of tuad- must therefore be
> responsible for the change in meaning.
>
>4) etxa Hwan pa-kan-kwe tuperu
> want Juan OBJ.see.POSS dog
>
>5) Hwan tuad-etxa pa-kan-kwe tuperu
> Juan FOC.want OBJ.see.POSS dog
>
>> 6. appikantotz Hwan
>> Juan will see us here.
>
>Appikantotz must mean "will see us here." Following from other
>information derived later, I break it down into:
>
>6) ap-pi-kan-totz Hwan
> here.FUT.see.us Juan
>
>> 7. tzifosuna
>> We slept.
>
>Because -suna means "sleep," "tzifo-" must mean "we.PST." After
>deciphering 8, this can be broken down into tzi "we" and fo- "PST."
>
>7) tzi-fo-suna
> we.PST.sleep
>
>> 8. fokantzi mama Huan
>> We saw Juan's mother.
>
>Both 7 and 8 have "we," and their only similiarity is tzi. Thus,
>fokan- must mean "we saw" and mama "mother." (Interesting coincidence?
>;) )
>
>8) fo-kan-tzi mama Hwan
> saw.we mother Juan
>
> Why is "we slept" tzifosuna, with particle order subject-tense-verb,
> but it's "we saw" fokantzi, with particle order tense-verb-subject?
Note that "sleep" is intransitive and "see" is transitive.
>> 9. pikantok tuperu suna
>> You'll see the sleeping dog.
>
> Pikantok must mean "you'll see." Perhaps it is word order than
> distinguishes the -suna "sleep" (as a verbal form) in 2, 3, and 7 from
> suna "sleeping" (as an adjective).
yes
> In 8 above, possessives like "Juan's mother" view Juan as an adjective
> of "mother."
no
>9) pi-kan-tok tuperu suna
> FUT.see.you dog sleeping
>
> And to see if I really got this down, here's my try at some new sentences:
>
> 10) Etxa mama Hwan pakantotz.
> Juan's mother wanted to see us.
etxa mama Hwan pakwekantzi --- I *think*
> 11) Etxako pasuna.
> I want to sleep.
etxak pakwesuna
> 12) Apfosunatok.
> You slept here.
>
> Am I close? :)
close
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