Re: HELP: a few questions

At 11:19 PM -0700 8/14/02, Jim Grossmann wrote:
>Hi, all,
>
>I have a few questions...
>
>1st:   Does anyone remember an old thread about how to do a 24-hour conlang,
>i.e. how to write a grammar as rapidly as possible?   I tried searching the
>archives for this thread, without success.
I remember that. Wasn't it Jack Durst who issued the challenge? As I
remember, he didn't provide any guidance in how to do it, he just
described the fruit of his labors.

>2nd:   Has anyone experimented with chaining conlangs or other ways to
>eliminate grammatical subordination of clauses in a conlang?
Haven't done this. I've always been fascinated by subordination, but
in my projects I like to turn subordinate clauses into what look like
noun phrases. I then claim that the language doesn't actually have
subordinate clauses, since they're really noun phrases. But that's
cheating.

>3rd:   Here's a twice-asked question:  I've heard that, the more
>sophisticated the cross-referencing system on the verbs, the less need there
>is to explicitly mark embedding.   Why would this be so?
I remember you asking the first time, but I didn't have a good answer
then; I still don't. Sorry! You might want to look at verbal systems
in Papuan languages; I believe that they have the cross-referencing
properties you're interested in. I know of a really good grammar for
Yimas which was written by William Foley; that might have something
of interest.

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga                  Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

Man deth swa he byth thonne he mot swa he wile.
'A man does as he is when he can do what he wants.'

- Old English Proverb

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