Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Lin: enneasemy & cements (Part 2)

From:Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>
Date:Thursday, March 28, 2002, 19:38
Before moving onto Part 2, there is, I think, one point that should be
clarified.

Possible sorts of sentence
--------------------------
Towards the end of Part 1, I wrote:
"So, for example,
_i2h_ may mean either "interesting person" or "interestingly have" (the
adjective becoming an adverb if the head is a verb); which meaning it
actually has, of course, depends upon whether _h_ is occupying the position
of a noun or of a verb in the sentence."

Srikanth said there were four kinds of of possible sentences, and then
listed only 3* -
(a) N-V      a sentence without an object.
(b) N-V-N    a sentence with an object.
(c) V-N!     a 2nd pers. imperative with an object; the ! is not optional.

* one of the discrepancies in the info Srikanth put on the web.  I guess if
he'd not disappeared to the Himalayas (or wherever), he'd have revised and
updated his stuff.  However, in this case, I think we can fill the gap with:
(d) V!     a 2nd pers. imperative without an object.

Remember: prepositional phrases are reckoned as objects.

Now on with Part 2!

Dropping some external cements
------------------------------
Often there will be redundant specification of word-generation.  As
Srikanth wanted as compact a language as possible, one can expect that he'd
try to exploit this by dropping one of the external cements if possible. In
fact, he went slightly further, as we shall see.

(a) By redundancy
    -------------
   In the sentence _h2m*m_ (high movement suits ['suits' is a verb;
Srikanth's example sntence], the generation of the first {m} is specified
by both the {2} and the {*}.   Yet, neither cement itself is redundant,
since removing one would leave the generation of one of the other words
unspecified.

  On the other hand, in _i2m*i9h_ (the interesting movement rises
internally), the {*} is redundant since the generation of the two
component-heads {m} and {h} is fixed by the internal cements; therefore,
according to Srikanth, the sentence could be written:
_i2m i9h_

[Comment: This doesn't appear any more compacted than before.  It seems
that the space (which, you will recall, was given a phonetic value and is
1-1 external cement marker) is here being used to mean: "external cement
requires no marking".  Are we to understand, indeed, that 'generation 1' is
the default if not specifically marked?  Are the two homosemic sentences
_i2m*i9h_ and _i2m i9h_ to be pronounced the same way or not?
This seems to be one of the points that Srikanth left unresolved.]

(b) By generation-1 default
    -----------------------
   When a noun component is of generation 1, the cement bound to it may be
omitted*.  If both noun-components are generation 1, only one may be
omitted, e.g.
_m%m=m_ (the mark matches the movement) may be written as _m%m m_

In general, the cement binding an extreme head is omitted if of generation
1, provided the other head is not also of generation 1.  In the latter
case, only one of the heads is dropped.

*but not in inverted sentences.  We haven't met them yet; they're a treat
for later.

Stacking adjectives/adverbs
---------------------------
  If a head has multiple qualifiers, the internal cement bound to each
qualifier refers to the head (i.e. binds the individual qualifier to the
head):
h2m = a high movement
i2h2m = an interesting [and] high movement
h3i2h2m = a heavy, interesting and high movement

If we want a qualify to modify another qualifier, we may used braces (or
'flower-brackets' as Srikanth poetically called them), e.g.
{i5h}2m = the interestingly tall man

Th cement {2} is determined by assuming the closing "}" is of generation 1,
and {5} binds the qualifier {i} to the adjective {h}.

But we can shorten this to _i5h2m_ because {5} cannot bind {i} to {m} since
that would imply generation 2 for {m}; but {2} already shows that {m} is of
generation 1.  Hierarchically, the cement closer to the head dominates.

Anaphors
--------
  It is possible to drop components and represent them symbolically by {`}.
This is especially useful when repeated patterns are present in the
narrative.  Thus, _`m_ = '(something) is possible'; {`} indicates there is
a preceding noun which is "understood", so {m} must be a verb.  {`} has
generation 1, so _`\m_ = '(it) matters'.

Uncombined cements can be used to signal anaphors.  Thus _i3_ is taken to
be a qualifier of generation 3, either an adverb or adjective.  Srikanth
presumes that disambiguation will easily be achieved by the context in
which it is made.  Likewise, _=h_ is taken to be either a verb (retain), or
an object noun (station).  Again, Srikanth assumes the context will make it
clear.
------------------------------------------------------------
End of 'enneasemy & cements (Part 2)'
------------------------------------------------------------

IMO Part 1 was fine, ingenious and interesting.  The above is interesting,
but seems to me to need more explanation and/or examples to make everything
entirely clear.  Maybe, Srikanth will be back with us again somewhen  ;)

The next posting will be about 'postpositions'.  But you may have wait a
few days.  The Easter Triduum starts this evening, and our two grandsons
will be joining us on Saturday to stay the week; so I don't know how much
free time I'll be getting  ;)

Ray.



=========================================
A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                     [J.G. Hamann 1760]
=========================================

Replies

Aidan Grey <grey@...>weekly vocab
Aidan Grey <grey@...>weekly vocab
Dan Jones <dan@...>weekly vocab
Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>Lin: Postpositions