THEORY: dispensing with part-of-speech categories

>===== Original Message From Lassailly@aol.com =====
>well, I'm impresse with your skills to make these things clear. Thanks a
lot..

Thanks much. :)

><< this is a good example of the tendency of meanings to end up in different
> parts of speech than we might expect, which conlangs like AllNoun exploit by
> pushing it to the extreme. >>
>
>I feel they (among whom I ) exploit something called experience. I see ducks
>waddling and tables supporting bottles and rarely the reverse, and I kind of
>think it may be of some importance when you speak of ducks, tables and maybe
>even of bottles and so on although loglangers would claim to the contrary I
>guess ;-). And I only know two kinds of processes : those with a finis and
>those without a finis. And I only know two kinds of finis : a retrospective
>one and a prospective one. Whether these are expressed "inside" the pleremes
>(call them a verb then) with a specific semanteme or "outside" the pleremes
>(call them nouns then) with a specific ceneme, I don't care very much
>anymore, but I find it very interesting to read yall's own experience about
>all that on this thread.
I would be interested to hear more about what you mean by processes with and
without a finis, and about restrospective vs. prospective finis.

I think what you have said about "experience" is probably the same as a very
important fact about language that I have been interested in: the degree to
which background knowledge and context enter into the interpretation of even
very simple sentences.  I suspect that in reality there is only one rule for
interpreting any language, and that is: "blend together the meanings of the
constructions and words *with common sense, general knowledge, and context*,
which is what I think you mean by "experience."

Ed

--
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Ed Heil ..................... edheil@mailandnews.com
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     "Koy tse tl'an tse tum gen nekom payaw;
           ts'enra me hlay man yatam."
"The noble nation of Atlantis is greatest among men;
    And its reign shall extend unto eternity."
          (from a Linear P inscription.)
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