Re: CHAT: I'm back!

On 8/19/05, Carsten Becker <naranoieati@...> wrote:
> On Fri 19 August 2005 01:23 (+0100) Steg Belsky wrote:
>
>  >> "Miranayam cepauarà naranoaris."
>  >> (Calvin nay Hobbes)
>  >
>  > Is that sig "verbing weirds language"?
>
> It is. It's worn-out, but it noticed me I hadn't found yet a
> way how to handle gerunds when I tried to translate it
> recently while chatting on #almea.
>
> Mirana -yam  cepau -arà    narano  -aris
> verb    BEN  weird  3sg:a  language PAT
> -----v-----  ------v-----  ------v------
>  verbing       weirds       language
Oddly enough, the most straightforward way to
render this into gjax-zym-byn does not use any
verbs, only postpositional phrases - which seems
to miss the point:

gjax     hxy-i  wlax-fwa      jax-o    kyr-fwa-toqj   gaxn-rq.
language PAT-at surprise-CAUS state-to verb-CAUS-NMZ  cause-from

However, if I try to translate it more literally with
a verb, it doesn't quite make sense because an abstraction
like "kyr-fwa-toqj" can't be an agent:

**gjax   hxy-i  wlax-fwa-ma-zox          kyr-fwa-toqj   tu-i.
language PAT-at surprise-CAUS-meta-V.ACT verb-CAUS-NMZ  AGT-at

Probably a more typical proverb for the ethos of gzb
would be something like, "marking abstractions as the
agents of verbs makes language surprising".  I'll have to
think about how to translate "abstraction" in this sense.

--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/conlang.htm
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