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Re: odd phrase/translation exercise

From:Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
Date:Friday, February 11, 2005, 17:33
Hi!

Mark J. Reed wrotes:
> "I didn't know that you were a philosopher".
In Qthyn|gai (which needed no new stems!): Ksyndàtrùiru||kàusty ngyrqùqlùn||gyngùindy`n|auxky. 'I did not know you were a philosopher.' Lit.: '(Intuitively) I did not know that (perceivedly) you are a thinker-about-the-general-concect-of-life.' y` = y with acute. Without tones: /ks@.nda.tXuI).Xu.|\|\kaU).st@ N@.Xqu.qKu.n|\|\g@.NuI).nd@.n|\aU).xk@/ With tones: /ks@_M.nda_F.tXuI)_L.Xu_H.|\|\kaU)_F.st@_H/ /N@_M.Xqu_F.qKu_L.n|\|\g@_H.NuI)_F.nd@_L.n|\aU)_H.xk@_M/ Phew... :-) Morpheme breakdown: Unfortunately, my tool does not yet show the semantical valence after each suffixation. This process of derivation is quite strict, regular and predictable: from the top-level valence specification in each word, one can infer the valence of each step when rewinding added suffixes, by checking the valence of the lexicon entry for the morpheme appended last. However, since it's not shown here, this is all quite superfluous und confusing information... :-) Word 1: ksyndàtrùiru||kàusty ks y nd àu(n,a) trùi ru ||kàu sty evidence case class val stem degree affix stem intuition PRD intelligence A*,P+ know not past 1 (n,a) is a hybrid phoneme that sometimes is /a/, sometimes /n/, sometimes nothing and ofter changes its environment in strange ways. Here, it becomes /a/ and then /au+a/ collapses to /a/. PRD = predicative case A*,P+ = agent incorporated, patient follows as a free word Word 2: ngyrqùqlùn||gyngùind?n|auxky ng y rq ù(n/a) ... evidence case class val ... perception PAT give-life P* ... qlù(³/a) ||ky ngùi ndy` n|au xky stem affix affix affix affix stem life aorist think to-last person 2 \__(to_be)_a_philosopher___________/ (³/a) is another hybrid phoneme: a voiced pharyngeal fric. or /a/. Here, it makes the following ||k voiced: n||g. And the (n/a) simply disappears. PAT = patientive case (marked in the valence infix at the head, so this is morphologically identical to PRD) P* = patient incorporated The verb 'to last' marks durative aspect. And 'think' without this suffix means: to be conscious, to witness, depending on aspect. Without aspect specification, it's underspecified: to think/be conscious/witness. The semantical valence is also important: 'think' needs an agent, while 'witness' needs a patient. The semantical agent comes from 'person' -- an ending attached to words that marks the doer of an action. 'Life'+aorist is 'life as a timeless concept', i.e., not an actual single life or duratively, but life in general. **Henrik

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Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>