Re: LUNATIC again

On Sun, 8 Nov 1998 07:04:56 -0500, Logical Language Group
<lojbab@...> wrote:

>"Invented" is a past tense with a sense of the perfective in it, though =
English
>does not have a good distinction between perfective and imperfective of =
such
>words.  The word "invented" in itself implies the completion of the
>process of inventing.  A conlang might be the first example in English =
of
>something that could be called "invented" that should not imply that the
>invention process is complete.  (I note that in addition to =
perfective/imperfective issues here we also have the distinction between =
completion and ending of
>a process.  Lojban can make all these distinctions with ease.  English =
cannot.)
>
>Boy, I never thought we'd come up with such a good example of English =
that is
>subject to poor encoding by an unsophisticated conlanger.  Anyone still =
reading
>this might look at their conlang to see whether they can distinguish =
between
>the possible senses of "invented" in ways that English cannot.  Since =
English
>does not make the distinction, "invented" will usually be taken to mean =
"done".

Jarrda doesn't have a word for "invent" per se, although compounds that
mean approximately "new + design", "new + build", or "new + create" are
possible. In this context, I'd probably leave out the "new", and just say
that I "design" (thlar), "build" (cir) or "create" (rrig) languages. To
bring to an end while in progress or unfinished is "rrek", in contrast to
"poam", which means to complete or finish. Thus, if I wanted to say that =
I
invented a language in the sense of "finished creating" it, I'd say "poam
rrig zira tal". On the other hand, to say that I've been constructing a
language, but left it in an unfinished state, "rrek cir zira tal". (And
that's without even going into the tense/aspect distinctions).

=46ew of my earlier languages could make these kinds of distinctions, but
that was one of the reasons I started designing languages like Jarrda. Of
course, one benefit of being the designer of a language is that you can =
add
new words as necessary to express whatever distinction you want to make.