Re: Comparison of adjectives (was Re: Reviving an old tradition)

* Jörg Rhiemeier said on 2006-04-20 22:39:45 +0200
> On Mon, 17 Apr 2006 17:22:38 -0400, Jeffrey Jones wrote:
> > I don't have any translations, but I'm always interested in seeing how
> > comparisons are done. Also equatives, superlatives etc. I'm trying to
> > figure out how "Delta" does these.
Thank's for starting the topic, Jeff and Jörg. Comparison happens to be
one of the subjects that the otherwise excellent _Describing
Morphosyntax_ by T. Payne completely neglects to even mention, so,
gentle readers, bookmark this thread!

AFMCL, in Taruven, comparison is *rather* complex, though far from as complex
as Ithkuil.

If you prefer a webpage you can find the below on
<http://taliesin.nvg.org/taruven/statives.html>

There's the standard IE comparative and superlative...

    gara
    gar    -a
    strong -comparative
    "more strong"

    gararre
    gar    -arre
    strong -superlative
    "most strong"

There's the neutral form:

    gar
    gar -Ø
    strong
    "strong"

There's the negative comparative and the negative superlative:

    gare
    gar    -e
    strong -neg.comparative
    "less strong"

    gareìre  (any unreadable squiggle here is an i-grave)
    gar    -eìre (ditto)
    strong -neg.superlative
    "least strong"

There's the hyperlative (blatantly stolen from Basque):

    gararrinn
    gar    -arrinn
    strong -hyperlative
    "too strong"

There's the negative hyperlative:

    gareìrinn  (any unreadable squiggle here is an i-grave)
    gar    -eìrinn (ditto)
    strong -neg.hyperlative
    "insufficiently strong"

Now, naturally, Taruven doesn't really have adjectives, it has stative
verbs, "statives", so *one* way to compare is to use the stative as a
verb, directly:

    Tim gara Annaþ
    Tim strongers Ann-patient
    "Tim is stronger than Ann"

    Tim gararre
    Tim strongest
    "Tim is the strongest"

    Tim gararre fenaþ
    Tim strongest them-patient
    "Tim is stronger than them"

    Tim gararrinn fenaþ
    Tim too.strong them-patient
    "Tim is too strong for them"

etc. for the negative suffixes.

Another method uses conjunction:

    Ann gar a Tim gara
    Ann strong and Tim stronger
    "Ann is strong but Tim is stronger"

... or conjunction plus antonym (bevare of a-grave!):

    Ann geàl a Tim vynn
    Ann big and Tim small
    "Ann is big, Tim is small"

... or conjunction plus negation (beware of e-umlaut!):

    Ann gar a Tim ëgar
    Ann strong and Tim not-strong
    "Ann is strong, Tim is not strong"

To just state equality or difference, verbs are used:
(These sentences have both i-grave and edh!)

    garel faìre soìðe
    strong-experiencer-subject is.equality.of us.dative
    "We are equal in strength, we are equally strong"

    garel egie soìðe
    strong-experiencer-subject is.difference.of us.dative
    "As to strength, we differ."

"soìðe" can be replaced by a list:

    garel egie Ann-Tim-Liz-aòið
    strong-experiencer-subject is.difference.of (Ann, Tim, Liz)-and-dative
    "As to strength, Ann, Tim and Liz are not the same."

As for "the... the"... Haven't a clue yet. The far above mentioned page
will be updated when I do.


t.