Re: EXERCISE: Meanings of to be

On Tue, 2 Jul 2002 15:30:03 -0400, Jake X <alwaysawake247@...>
wrote:

> I recently dealt with eradicating "to be" from elanagauo, replacing it
> with one of two different words depending on context. My choice was to
> use one verb for existance and one for equivalence. But there are more
> meanings, and different ways to split it. For those of you who don't
> stick to the natlang definition, what do you use? I made a short
> exercise.
>
> 1. forming predicate nominative: He IS happy
'Yemls doesn't have a copula, most main event clauses have the form
Subject: Predicate, whether the predicate is a noun phrase, and adjective,
or a verb with objects. So "He is quiet (now)." would be
{d: xox.}

> 2. equivalence: Today is Wednesday.
I haven't figured out time expressions yet ....
'Yemls is _supposed_ to distinguish equivalence of subject and predicate
from assertions that the subject's referent is a subset of the predicate's,
but I haven't decided on the distinguishing mechanism. Perhaps I can get
away with saying that a definite predicate indicates equivalence? E.g.
{Wi: jOn.} "This is John." or
{Wu: d xox-m.} "Those are the quiet ones."

> 3. existance: To be, or not to be.
This involves the use of the existential quantifier as a pronoun, but I
haven't figured out whether it's the subject or the predicate.
a) {a: dOg} (there are things which are dogs)
b) {dOg: aa} (dogs are something)

> 4. English use, for creating verb forms: He is walking.
The most basic verb form specifies (present) progressive. Affixes (and/or a
stress shift) are used for _other_ aspects.
{HlA: SER-f} "Helga was singing." (stress on 1st mora of root ["sAE.lOf])
{HlA: XpSER-f} "Helga was starting to sing."
{HlA: SERf} "Helga sang." (stress shifts to last mora of root [sAE"lOf)
{HlA: SERrf} "Helga has sung." (stress shifts to last mora of root
[sAE"lOl'.fU])

> 5. Numerical equivalence: One plus one is two.
I haven't even started to figure this out, but I imagine it will fall into
the equivalence category???

Jeff J.

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