Re: Participles in Natlangs and in Conlangs

On 6/19/06, Eldin Raigmore <eldin_raigmore@...> wrote:
> I wondered whether I ought to use the [THEORY]: tag on this, but decided I
> shouldn't.  In case that was the wrong decision, I apologize.
>
> Most natlangs have verbal adjectives -- adjectives derived from verbs and
> still having some of the characteristics of verbs -- which are
> called "participles" by their grammarians.
>
> Many natlangs have at least two different kinds of participles, differing
> either in voice, or in tense, or in aspect.
>
> Voice:  The noun modified by the verbal adjective may be either the agent
> of the verb -- so the participle is an active participle -- or the patient
> of the verb -- so the participle is a passive participle.
>
> Example; suppose Giuseppe loses his gondola.
> We could speak of "the losing gondolier" -- "losing" is an active
> participle;
> or we could speak of "the lost gondola" -- "lost" is a past participle.
>
> Tense:  The noun modified by the verbal adjective may have been involved in
> the situation described by the verb in the past -- a past participle -- or
> may be involved in such a situation now -- a present participle -- or may
> be predicted to be involved in such a situation in the future -- a future
> participle.
>
> Examples:
> I don't think English has future participles; if I'm wrong could someone
> let me know?
> But we could speak of "the losing war" ("losing" is a present participle),
> meaning one we are losing right now,
> or of "the lost war" ("lost" is a past participle), meaning one we lost in
> the past.
>
> Aspect:  The noun modified by the verbal adjective may be (or may have
> been) in the midst of the situation described by the verb -- yielding an
> imperfective participle -- or the situation so described may be treated as
> a lump without temporal parts -- yielding a perfective participle.
>
> Example:
> "the rising sun" -- "rising" is an imperfective participle.
> "the risen sun" -- "risen" is a perfective participle.
>
> Some natlangs have two or all three of these categories distinguishing
> their participles.  I believe -- correct me if I'm wrong -- that Latin, for
> example, had future active, future passive, present active, present
> passive, past active, and past passive participles.
As does Esperanto, more or less, though some
analyze the tense axis as having more to do with
aspect.

> [MODE, MOOD, AND MODALITY AS CATEGORIES OF PARTICIPLES]
> (6)
> Could a language have an inflection (which I'll write as "-6" due to lack
> of creativity) that, added to a verb "V", would yield an adjective "V-6" so
> that "N is V-6" would mean "Somebody ought to get around to V-ing N soon."?
Esperanto's -end suffix has roughly
this meaning (without the "soon"):

legenda, ought to be read

> (7)
> Could a language have an inflection (which I'll write as "-7" due to lack
> of creativity) that, added to a verb "V", would yield an adjective "V-7" so
> that "N is V-7" would mean "N ought to V pretty soon."?
I suppose you could use Esperanto's "dev"
root as a suffixoid in roughly this way; but it's rarely if
ever used IME.

Studento estas legideva.
= A student is such-that-e-ought-to-read.

> English has the suffix "-able" (also "-ible") which, when added to a verb
> V, yields an adjective "V-able" so that "N is V-able" means "It would be
> easy or pleasant or possible for someone to V N."  IMO this is a modal
> participle; the mode is one of possibility, the voice is passive.
Esperanto: -ebl.  legebla, videbla, etc.
gzb: -faj.   lju-faj, etc.

> (9)
> Do any natlangs or conlangs you know about have an inflection (called
> here "-9" because I can't think of anything else offhand) that can be added
> to a verb V to make an adjective V-9 so that "N is V-9" means "N can V"?
Esperanto uses the verb root "pov" as a suffixoid
for this purpose:

vidipova, sighted;
legipova, literate; etc.

> (10)
> What of the English suffix "-worthy"?
Esperanto: -ind
leginda, worth reading;
vidinda, worth seeing; etc.

gzb -gô covers both Esperanto's -end and -ind:
lju-gô = worth reading or ought to be read

Esperanto's -em suffix, and the gzb equivalent
-sô, may be relevant: they mean roughly
"tending to do or be or be partial to [root]".

legema, bookish;
kolerema, tending to be/become angry;
katema, partial to cats.

gzb has a couple of other possibly relevant
verb-to-adjective affixes:

-ŝra:  likely to do ~ soon
vy-zô: to decide, to will, to intend
vy-ŝra: likely to make up one's mind soon

-zwa ("would-be") is more commonly used with
substantive roots -- e.g., tyrn-tla-zwa,
a political candidate; fĭm-hôw-tla-zwa,
a medical student.  But it can be used with
verbal roots as well:

vy-zwa, a person who strives to be decisive/
is striving to make up his mind

A few other gzb verbal suffixes:

-kar:  the sort of thing to which one typically does ~
-Φa:  the stuff that results from doing ~

On 6/20/06, Jean-François Colson <fa597525@...> wrote:
> >>[MODE, MOOD, AND MODALITY AS CATEGORIES OF PARTICIPLES]
> >
> > I don't have much to add here, but I like the idea - thanks for bringing it
> > up!
>
> I think Esperanto has mood as a category of participles, althought that's not
> been officialized yet by the Academy:
>
> - la legota libro: the book which will be read;
> - la leguta libro: the book which would be read;
>
> - la legonta persono: the person who will read (that's sure he will read);
> - la legunta persono: the person who would read (if he had time to do so).
Yes, these are used more commonly IME than
most other reforms (such as -icx as a masculine
version of -in).

>
> BTW what's the difference between mode and mood on a grammatical level?
I think they're just alternate terms for the same thing.
Or maybe "mode" is a more general term?

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

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