Re: verbs = nouns?

On Wed, 10 Jan 2001 15:56:35 -0500 "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh@...>
writes:
> !!!!  This is how my conlang treats nouns and adjectives! Though my
> conlang takes it one step further -- adjectives *are* substantives,
> at
> least as far as grammar is concerned. There is no distinction
> between the
> two grammatically; only semantically. Juxtaposition of an adjective
> to a
> substantive does *not* cause the former to modify the latter;
> rather, in
> order for an adjective to modify a substantive, a sub-clause must be
> employed. Compare:
> T
-

Interesting...
i'm wondering in Rokbeigalmki might have a similar process at work with
its adjectives, or at least they may be descended from a similar
view-of-sustantiveness in an earlier form of the language.

Like i mentioned before, verb-noun roots are at their essence nouns - the
verbal meaning comes by attaching a _subject-tense complex_, which is
essentially a temporalized pronoun, to them.

DIMWA = silence
AZ (i) + A (present-immediate) + DIMWA = AZA-DIMWA = i become silent

KHEZÃ = gaze
IZ (she) + U (past) = IZU-KHEZÃ = she would gaze

These prefixes can also exist by themselves, with an implied verb of
"being", "being at", "doing", or "going":
HA'ROKBEIGALMKIDH EZ? = (are) you a Rokbeigalmkidh?
AZ. = i (am)
(notice the lack of a tense-marking vowel - this is the only example of a
"simple present" in the language)

PAWA EZÁ = where (are) you?

HA'EZU-DATZARP SHA'YEBLM-A? = have you gathered the elephants?
AZAZÚ. = i just (did).

WA'PAWA UHMZÚ = to where did they (go)?

But getting on to the adjectives, to turn a noun into an adjective you
add the prefix SUD_/SAD_/SID_.
DIMWA = silence
SUDDIMWA = quiet
SADDIMWA = quieter
SIDDIMWA = quietest

These three prefixes have some kind of connection to the three particles
ZUD, ZAD, and ZID:
ZUD = a little, some, a few, sorta
ZAD = very, many, a lot of
ZID = too, too many

So i'm beginning to see that the sentence
 AZA-KHAZ SHA'MALD SUDTZRUS "i am seeing a strong human"
as a derivative of a sentence
 *AZA-KHAZ SHA'MALD; ZUD TZRUS SA'UHSH "i am seeing a human; some
strength (is) with them"

Somewhat similarly to how the sentence
 AO''LE''DHM UHMZOI-GUVDHAB LA'LESNAM "conlangers talk about language"
is literally "conlangers - they talk about language".
Every 'conjugated verb/noun' must include a pronoun, whether the
pronoun's referent is explicit in the utterance or not.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "Word making is world making."
     ~ _The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis_
          by Avivah Zornberg