Re: nouns-verbs

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 03:55:33 -0500, # 1 <salut_vous_autre@...> wrote:

>One of them was the fact that all languages divided nouns and verbs in two
>types of words
>
>In every tongue there is a difference between a verb and a noun
>
>In ALL dialects we can take a sheet and write nouns on one side and verbs
>on the other side
>
>
>Is that true? Do you know or have heard of a language where this is not
>true? Did one of you invent a conlang without that thing?
There are languages that don't distinguish grammatical categories of verbs
and nouns. That is, there aren't any endings that are found only on verbs or
only on nouns.

In all languages, however, we can syntactically differenciate between verbs
and nouns: Verbs are the parts of speech that determine the structure of the
sentence. The sentence structure "I VERB the English language" can
correspond to the verb _to learn_: I learn the English language, but not to
the verb _to sleep_: I sleep the English language, or to the verb _to rain_:
I rain the English language.


>I passed a long time to think how such a similarity could have hold in ALL
>human languages
>
>first possibility: all languages are evolved from a single language wich
>invented that concept and its use since our birth makes us incapable of
>changing it in our language
>
>second: the human brain can't think of a way to describe the world without
>a division of "things" and "actions"
>
>third: other ways have appeared in the history (when humans begun to speak)
>but their speakers have been unable to function with it and changed or died
>
>fourth: the human brain can think an other way but that other way is so far
>of the one in usage that it can't be reached by a natural evolution because
>their is no forms between by wich an evolution can pass
You're raising the question of the origin of speech, an old question that
will remain unanswered, and you've found many of the traditional answers.
The second hypothesis may be further subdivided: Either because we're born
with a brain that works this way; or because the world that surrounds us
works this way.

gry@s:
j. 'mach' wust