Re: Morpheme index project

>I'm not sure about using numbers for this. Too easy to make copying
>mistakes without noticing the error.
Not that easy, I think, because each range of numbers
would be assigned to a certain functional/semantic area,
so 1-digit differences would be either irrelevant or
relevant enough in a certain context for you to make
sure you write the correct number.

Besides, the code is intended primarily for use with
computers, so you just need to copy-and-paste the codes
to avoid possible copying errors.


>One thing that I've done when I have a
>definition but haven't yet decided on a word for it in the language is to
>use English words
I don't like this option at all, because it would be
completely misleading to name a morpheme of the IAL
with an English word that simply has a similar meaning
but doesn't feature the same "technical" specifications,
so to speak, of the morpheme it would be standing for.
E.g., you may name the morpheme for "speech" that way
without much problem, because the one in the IAL would be
almost equivalent, but you may not name an IAL morpheme as
"eat" because the more or less IAL equivalent does not refer
a subject being the agent and an object being the patient, as
the English word "eat" does, but is neutral to this respect
(the IAL morpheme would be better translated using just one
of the meanings of the English word "eating", but again that
word could be mistaken to mean the other meaning which is
not that of the IAL morpheme).


>or abbreviations in capital letters.
The amount of morphemes would make this equivalent to
using numbers, because it would be as easy to confuse
e.g. 0456/0466 as AFIB/AFIR.

OTOH, nothing stops you from using short definitions
together with the code, the former for the sake of easy
recognition and memory aid, the latter for the sake of
accuracy.


>Later, once I've
>figured out what the word really sounds like, it's a simple matter of
>find-and-replace, match case, whole words only.
My idea is that once the morphemes are assigned to
real words, a simple computer program will "translate"
all the materials for the language already available
quickly and without error. And the code would still be
useful after that, e.g. for internal use of word
processors.

Cheers,
Javier

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