Re: The only SIX or FIVE verbs you'll ever need

David Peterson wrote:


  DP Pardon me, but, in the words of a dissenting chief justice, I respectfully dissent.
 RM And I concur with my distinguished colleague. A long time ago I invented an
"all noun" language which had only one "verb"-- _there is (+tense)_. The verby
concepts were nouns of the sort "act of ....ing", "state of...ing". So {there
is}{act of hunting}{by me}
  {there is}{act/state? of loving}{by John}{w.r.t.Mary} etc. 

 There were lots of noun cases. I don't recall ever getting much beyond simple
sentences like the above. The lang. had a vaguely Slavic sound, as I was quite
taken by the Serbo-Croatian "helpful sentences" in the booklet that came with
the International Driver's License.


 Five verbs? Why be extravagant? There's a natural language in Australia that
makes do with three, and I believe they are: "do", "be" and "go". I don't have
any data off-hand, but I believe you'd do the following for different types of
verbal ideas:

  I do a hunt = I hunt
  I do a sleep = I sleep
  I am a thoughtful (one) = I think
  I am a thoughtful (one) about birds = I think about birds
  I not go off of the rock = I don't get off of the rock
  I go walking to the hut = I walk to the hut

  By the by, if anybody knows this language, and has other data, please do share.

  -David