Re: Noun and noun or noun

> "From Http://Members.Aol.Com/Lassailly/Tunuframe.Html" wrote:
> > How do your conlangs deal with definite, abstract, collective, etc. nou=
ns ?
>=20
> Using my alternate, more phonemic, orthography
> Collective: paci- (usually gender 7, but not always), e.g., wapacisaga'
> =3D story (lit. "collection of words"), pipacisani' =3D village (sani' =
=3D
> house), pipacicani' =3D life (concrete, lit. "collection of years")
I've always seen "collective plurals" used like this to build new words,
like Arove"n's -e"ad suffix.  Are there any other conlangs which also make
a collective/separative distinction with the actual plural?
e.g.
     "I looked at the houses (C)" =3D I looked and saw the houses, all of t=
hem.
     "I looked at the houses (S)" =3D I looked at the one house, and (then)
        I looked at the other house, etc. (for instance, if the houses in
        question are across the city from each other and must be looked at
        individually).


> Abstract: suffix -la', e.g., yawinna', death (from yawi'n, "die")
>   -la' is a strange suffix, with morphophonemic weirdnesses.  In Old W.,
> it caused stress to shift one syllable rightward.  Plus, the l and any
> preceding consonant underwent metathesis, and l+consonant became
> geminate consonants.  Thus, Old W. qihaquhe'n (to rest; used
> euphemistically for "die") became yawi'n (loss of /h/ and /q/, merging
> of /i/ and /e/), while qihaquhenla' (rest) became qihaquhelna' then
> qihaquhenna' then finally pyawinna' (with the addition of the gender 7
> prefix)
>
> There are a number of pairs of "abstract" and "concrete" words
> translated as the same thing in English, for instance, pipacicani' is a
> concrete word meaning "life", that is, an individual life, as in "3000
> lives were lost in the attack" or "he loved her for all his life", while
> wakassa' is "life" in the abstract, as in "life and death".
Biological life (a process or description) and subjective life (an abstract
idea, or "construct" (conceptual structure; a network of ideas as such) in
my lingo.  Is there a noun counterpart for yawi'n -- death as the end of
physical life, or a verb counterpart "live" for pipacicani' -- to be alive?

Josh

        _/_/      _/_/  _/_/_/_/   Joshua Shinavier            =20
         _/        _/  _/         Loorenstrasse 74, Zimmer B321=20
        _/        _/  _/_/_/_/   CH-8053 Z=FCrich              =20
 _/    _/  _/    _/        _/   Switzerland                 =20
_/_/_/_/  _/_/_/_/  _/_/_/_/   jshinavi@g26.ethz.ch

Danov=EBn pages: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/5555/ven.htm