Re: Universal Translation Language

At 5:15 pm +0200 5/6/99, taliesin the storyteller wrote:
.....
>unfamiliar with? Sure, I can find explanations of terms like 'attributive' and
>'equative' in my copy of "A dictionary of grammatical terms in
>linguistics" by
>R. L Trask (hereby recommended to all), but he doesn't mention in what branch
>of linguistics this originated, and gives no context whatsoever.
>
>So in what books did you pick up these terms, and if they are in French only,
>can you recommend a good French -> English linguistic dictionary?
Certainly not French only!

'Attributive'
I've known this word for a good forty years or more. It's been around in
books here in the UK and I wasn't aware that it was associated with any
particular school. The chief place I've come across in describing a feature
in languages like Russian or German where _attributive adjectives_ (e.g. a
new house; noviy dom; ein neues Haus) behave in one way as regards
inflexions, agreement etc, and _predicative adjectives_ behave a different
way (e.g. the house is new; dom nov; das Hause ist neu).   I wasn't aware
that there was a different terminology.

'equative'
I've also known this word for a long time as it is traditionally used in
denoting one of the degrees of comparison of adjectives & adverbs in the
Celtic languages: positive, equative, compartive & superlative.  The
Celticlangs have a separate form for 'as tall (as)' [equative], besides the
more common comparative (taller) and superlative (tallest) of many other
natlangs.
But I suspect it wasn't that use Mathias employed; and I must admit that I
have met this second use of 'equative' less often - but it is not AFAIK
particularly French any more than it is English usage - namely the type of
sentence where one noun is 'equated' with the other: "Fred is leader".  The
verb "is" is sometimes called an 'equational verb' to distinguish it from
the 'active/passive' sort of verbs, though I admit the terms 'copulative
verb' or 'copula' are more common (but I guess I see why some people prefer
'equative'& 'equational' rather than 'copulative'.)

Ray.