Re: Questions About Grammar

On Sat, Jul 10, 2004 at 08:08:43PM -0400, Adam F. wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone had any advice from their own experiences
> with developing the grammar for their own conlangs, or any advice in
> relation more specifically to the use of conjugation and declension,
> which is a little confusing to me.
Well, my first question would be, have you ever studied a foreign
language to learn to speak it?  While I often get inspired to make
a language sketch from reading a description of some novel form
of grammar, the most long-lasting conlangs and the conlang features
that I incorporate into them seem to spring from internalizing the
grammar of a foreign language by learning to speak it.  So if you
haven't done it, I would suggest studying an inflecting language
in a classroom situation where you can use it with the other students.

> I was really glad to find this mailinglist, and actually hope for a
> billion replies.
You might have more chance of starting a mailinglist thread full of
replies if you convince your mail program to stop setting the Reply-To:
header.  Currently your mail program is requesting that replies go
directly to you instead of to the list, so unless the person responding
to you changes the To: field back to the list, the rest of us will
never see the response and be unable to start a healthy discussion.

Thanks,
Amanda