Re: Equatives?

On Tue, Mar 11, 2003 at 02:29:17PM +0100, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
[snip]
> My Chasmäöcho doesn't have the same adjective degrees as other languages
> have.  It has no comparative or superlative. On the other hand, it has
> an "intensive"  (more, too much, very, etc...) and an "absolute"
> (enough, simply, just as, etc...). So its "absolute" looks quite a bit
> like your equative :)) .
Aha! "Intensive" is the word. I'd suggested "excessive" in another post.
:-P

As for the "absolute"... Ebisedian's _osa'o_ derives from _saa'i_
["sa:?i], which refers to a delicately balanced state in an otherwise
unstable configuration. Sorta like an equillibrium, or a metastable state,
if you will. (Think, balancing on a tightrope.) So _osa'o_ has the idea of
being *just* right, with just that precise balance.

> Check:
> http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9908C&L=conlang&P=R10162
> for an explanation of how the absolute works in Chasmäöcho, and:
> http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9908D&L=conlang&P=R3795
> for the full morphology of the adjective.
Very interesting. I like the way your adjectives have a positive degree
and an absolute degree. I can already see a correspondence to Ebisedian!
:-)

_okro'_ (prep): "more", "greater quantities of".
_chaa'r_ (prep): "too much/many of", [1] "excessive amounts of".
_osa'o_ (prep): "just the right amount of", "equal amounts of".

Ebisedian also has a superlative in addition to the above:
_Ke'kro_ (prep): "the most", "maximal amounts of".

And of course, the corresponding negative degrees:
_omo'_ (prep): "less", "lesser quantities of"
_su_ (prep): "insufficient quantities of"
_Pi'mo_ (prep): "the least", "minimal amounts of".

Note that _osa'o_ applies both in the positive and negative degrees. Or
you might call it the zero'th degree, since to be just right indicates
it's neither positive nor negative. :-)

[1] As you pointed out in your post, English distinguishes between
countable and uncountable; Ebisedian doesn't. So _okro'_ can be used both
for countables like people, and uncountables like happiness and other
abstract quantities.

> And if you're interested more interested in the language, please check:
> http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9909B&L=conlang&P=R3696
> for a concept that will surely interest you and quite a few examples of the
> language :)) .
Interesting concept. I don't think verb incorporation would work in
Ebisedian; but Ebisedian does have two features which might be close to
the topicalization that you have:

1) Topic-comment construct, which exhibits fronting: basically, you name
  the subject of interest in a locative case, and then make one or more
  comments on it by referring to it using a back-referencing particle
  (short-range pronoun, if you will). For example:
        pii'z3di. kilu tha't33 ke. kil0 r3sa'na ta'maa ce. kili ili'ro
        th3r3Ka'si d3 gw'rak3 re.
        "The man: he is tall, he speaks wisely, he is (one of) the guards
        around the palace."
  _kilu_, _kil0_, and _kili_ are different forms of the back-referencing
  particle, which refers back to the topic, _pii'z3di_ (man).

2) Emphatic preposition, _iro_, which calls special attention to a
  particular word in the sentence. Ebisedian has free word order, so the
  emphasized word need not be fronted. Examples:
        jul0'r lyy's iro b33'l3n3 loo'ru.
        "It is the boy who went outside from the house."

        iro jul0'r lyy's b33'3n3 loo'ru.
        "It is from the house that the boy went outside."

        jul0'r lyy's b33'l3n3 iro loo'ru.
        "It is outside where the boy went from the house."

(Incidentally, _iro_ is cognate with _i're_. Both have to do with
emphasis.)


T

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Elegant or ugly code as well as fine or rude sentences have something in
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