Re: Universal Translation Language

From Http://Members.Aol.Com/Lassailly/Tunuframe.Html wrote:

> i meant "in my opinion", which is not jap or else's. pidgin is not God. no
> auxlang will please 10 billion earthlings so keep your WO if it fits you.
Pidgin/creole does have special status though, as showing genesis of lang.
Bickerton's works, verbs "licensing" nouns, other interesting stuff.
The "best" auxlang may be some kind of creole. I have the idea of deriving
most verbs from a few simple ones, and showing their definitions as such,
something like Bierzwicka's "natural semantic language". Anyway, all
good ideas tend to mix well together. Understanding such things would
appear a prerequisite to "universal" translation ...

> i'm always amazed of english's lack of topicalisation. how do you manage that
By adding expletives in *just* the right spots.

> >  > you need 4.
> >
> >  How?! I can see the 50, what are the 4 and the 10? Do you mean "case roles"
> >  as in http://www.uoregon.edu/~delancey/papers/bls91.html ??
> >
> come on, make it simple :
> (1) i give sthg > (2) sthg is-given by me
> (3) fact-of-giving sthg > (4) fact-of-being given
Most experts say 3 core cases, I try to get by with 2.
The noun cases are somehow "dual" with respect to verb voices.
Oblique cases are more explicitly like a verb + noun.
Trying to split noun from verb is like cutting a magnet in half.

According to deLancey's argument, the fundamental pattern is:
"agent CAUSES theme BE/BECOME state", for a total of 3 case roles
and 3 fundamental relations. That's where I'm metaphorically at now.

> now if your verbs don't refer to words' function or result, then you may add :
> (5) i use-function of sthg > (6) sthg's function is-used by
> (7) sthg's function aims at sthg > (8) sthg is aimed at by sthg's function
> (9) to make sthg > (10) to be made by
> (11) to apply on > (11) to be applied sthg
> etc.
I imagine those as obliques, to be built up from the more-primitives,
and then elided or condensed into familiar verb/adjectives.

> wait a minute ! i'm describing you Tunu, so i'd better stop here. conlanging
> is not auxlanging.
Art is just a higher logic.