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Re: Help: Zhyler ECM/Raising Verbs (Longish)

From:David Peterson <thatbluecat@...>
Date:Monday, April 5, 2004, 6:16
Andreas wrote:

<<I'm a bit daunted by a class _XIV_ nominal suffix. How many are there, and
 what differentiates them?>>

Really? You don't know about the 32 official nominal suffixes of the world's languages
specified under Universal Grammar? I'd think it'd be in any elementary text
book... At any rate, an example of a class XIV would be /-ness/ in English.

Okay, just kidding, just kidding. ;) Sorry about that; I should've explained. In
Zhyler, there are seventeen noun classes. You take a stem and add a class
suffix to get a meaning: Class I is for untitled humans, class II for furry
land animals, class III for birds or flying non-insects, etc. Class XIV is for
actions or the results of actions. All noun classes in Zhyler are specified
with suffixes. The main way to derive nouns is simply to add a class suffix.
So, by adding a clas XIV suffix to a verb, I make it into a noun describing
that action. So *that's* what I meant by that. Sorry I didn't explain. I have a
page on the class suffixes of Zhyler, if you're interested:

http://dedalvs.free.fr/zhyler/nclasses.html

<< Seoant rachoaraso bhadoro "I-want thy-eating-ACC the-bread-ACC-ADJ-ACC"

 Anyone thinking this is a good idea?>>

I'm not sure I follow exactly... But let me say that you could have two different
strategies: One for nominal objects, and one for pronominal objects. You could
also turn "bread" into an adverb. Have you got an oblique case? You could make
the objects of nominalizations oblique.

You could have a different type of nominalizer for just this instance (like /pag-/
in Cebuano). Lots of languages have different nominalizers for different
things.

Hmm... This is a sticky, sticky issue. Good thing it pops up on the list every so
often so we can all worry about it in healthy dosages.

-David

Replies

Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>
Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>