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Re: Gevey (Part 1): Verbs - long

From:Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
Date:Monday, November 27, 2000, 14:25
En réponse à Rik Roots <rikroots@...>:

> > > > Strange "modes" and "voices". But I am quite a lover of strange > > terminologies so It's okay by me :) . > > Please note that I use grammatical terms "loosely" in my description > of Gevey - mainly because I won't let my obvious ignorance of > linguistic terminology get in the way of my vision :-> >
No need for justification, I do the same as you. You should see the terminology I use with Tjá-tsáñ...
> > I don't think of them being obsessively cultural (though of course it > goes on). They do like to know where they stand in a conversation or > story - who is doing what to whom, and whether the actions they are > trying to achieve/avoid are achievable/avoidable... >
I can see that :)) .
> > Emphatic aspects > ----------------- > There are five emphatic aspect adverbs, which are used to emphasise > or negate the action of a verb: > > nana - corresponding to never > na - corresponding to not > pae - corresponding to uncertainty > she - giving a positive emphasis to the action of the verb > shise - giving an emphatic emphasis to the action of the verb >
Wow! very neat! I've never thought about it!
> Conditional aspects > -------------------- > There are a large number of conditional aspect adverbs. The more > commonly used ones include: > > haz - would: a conditional desire > klov - could: a conditional ability or permissability > gaz - should: a conditional obligation > man - must: an imperative > san - must: an imploration or pleading > tuum - ought to: an obligation > hon - must: a strong promise > nezh - will: a desire (not future tense) > seg - may: a conditional possibility > tog - might: a weak conditional possibility > godh - shall: a promise (not future tense) > trev - can: a permissability > shiv - ought to: a possibility or liklihood > stav - can: an emphatic belief > brav - can: an ability or belief > > (there are more elegant ways of conveying such information, but this > system seems to work - I'm after utility rather than beauty with this > language) >
I find it rather beautiful! Nice idea.
> > > > Does it mean that intransitive verbs can take an object anyway, with > > the help of a preposition, like French so-called "indirect > > transitive verbs" (like "penser à": to think about)? If so, then > > it's a strange way of defining intransitive, but I like it :) . > > This is my disgraceful misuse of grammatical terminology tripping you > up. Sorry. >
Don't be, I like it :) .
> Gevey speakers divide the world of verbs into two types - those that > need a preposition to work, and those that never take a preposition. > All verbs in Gevey can act on a direct object. Your example is spot > on! >
Interesting. So you mean that for a verb like "to go", the phrase "to the pool" would be considered like an object of the verb? That's what I do In Chasmäöcho and Notya.
> > Apologies again. There is no "passive voice" in Gevey. I meant > "incidental voice" (which until a couple of weeks ago I was calling > "passive voice", but that was stretching the grammatical lexicon > beyond its endurance so I changed it) >
:)). What's the use of the incidental voice?
> > I am currently working on producing a native grammar for Gevey ie > a set of Gevey words I can use in the grammatal description of the > language in place of the standard English/Latin lexicon. This will > then allow me to create a definitive grammar, with a terminology annex > which will be a lot easier to update when I realise that I am using > technical terms incorrectly. I don't want to have to keep on > correcting the whole grammar every time I realise my terminology is > misleading. Strangely enough, I'm using theatrical terms (actor, > chorus, prop, stage) to render the grammatical ideas into Gevey, so > maybe the locals do have an artistic view of their lives and language, > after all :-> >
That would be nice! :) . I'm not fond of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, but I do think that sometimes grammatical features must be backed up by cultural features. Christophe.