Re: Some or any

On Sun, 26 May 2002 23:10:45 -0400 Stephen DeGrace
<stevedegrace@...> writes:
> That's really interesting. Do you ever find yourself
> needing to make the distinction we feel the need to in
> English in Rokbeigalmki between, say "something" and
> "anything"? If you ever do run into a "problem", what
> is that conlang's solution?
> Stephen
-

I can't really think of a situation where i'd run into that... maybe you
or someone else could come up with examples of contrastive
something/anything, but i can't think of any at the moment.  The problem
i *do* have to deal with in Rokbeigalmki is distinguishing between the
negative versions of 'some' and 'all' words:

iltao = always
tatao = sometimes/anytime
natao = never
niltao = never

|iltao| and |niltao| are opposites, and |tatao| and |natao| are
opposites.  I generally think of the |nil-| forms as stronger than the
|na-| forms, and as negating the whole, while the |na-| forms negate
individual instances within the whole.

Hmm... aha!  in equative copula sentences, |na-| forms have to be used
with the present-immediate tense, while |nil-| forms can be used with the
present-routine tense or tenselessly:

|natao sudtelos-ad azá| = "i am never scared", there is no instance in
time that you could point to and say that at that moment i'm being
afraid.
|niltao sudtelos-ad az| = "i am never scared", when you look at all of
Time as a whole, throughout all of it i am not scared.

I hope that sort of makes sense.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "an aroma for home-a, and a reek for the street..."
     ~ earth, by david brin

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