Re: Nullar (Was: Re: Noun Number)

On Mon, Nov 05, 2001 at 09:50:22PM -0500, Padraic Brown wrote:
[snip]
> "zero" is the countless things that aren't there
Cool! You just inspired me with an *awesome* idea. Usage of the nullar in
my conlang has been scant so far -- but surely such an *ahem* ingenious
idea deserves more popularity among its speakers! Now I got an idea.
Speakers of my conlang will use the nullar to indicate absence, instead of
using a negated sentence. So for example, instead of saying "Ekaasi (name
of a king) is not here", they would say, "none of Ekaasi is here", i.e.,
"no-Ekaasi is here":
        emwwkaa's3 na'ci. [&mu":ka:s@ natSi] (Kirsch)
        "no-Ekaasi here".

mwwekaa's3:     e-              masc. proper name prefix
                myy-            nullar prefix
                kaa'si          proper name
                emwwkaa's3      vowel inflection for conveyant case

na'ci: neuter singular intimate pronoun. (I'm borrowing it here, it
strictly doesn't refer to a place but to an inanimate object the speaker
either owns or feels close to, but I haven't coined a word for "place"
yet :-P)

Literally, the prefix e- can be thought of as a title, like "Mr."  or
"King". So the sentence literally means "Mr. No-Ekaasi is here." :-P
So I could say, e.g.,
        emwwpadra3'k jhi'li.
        "Padraic is not in the room." Literally, "Mr. No-Padraic is in the
        room." :-)
Etc.

> > Curiosity kills the cat. Moral: don't be the cat.
>
> !
Hehehe. Just another of those non-sequitur "logic" reasonings, like:
        Every man is mortal. Socrates is mortal.
        Therefore, every man is Socrates.

:-P


T

--
This sentence is false.