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Re: Negatives (Trentish, with adjective notes too) (was: Re: narethanaal)

From:Vasiliy Chernov <bc_@...>
Date:Thursday, December 20, 2001, 17:46
On Sat, 15 Dec 2001 10:46:44 +0100, Kala Tunu <kalatunu@...> wrote:

[speaking of opposite/reverse tags]

>kulo "protect" > kukulo "threaten"
Or 'leave unprotected', 'endanger'?
>and lastly the really completely arbitrary ones: >mese "female" > memese "male"
I think, this can be explained only culturally.
>on the other hand, there are opposites that imply >existence/absence of an item: >clean = with no dirt, to clean = to remove dirt >healthy = with no disease, to cure = to remove disease >but Tunu makes "dirty" as "un-clean" (sosoke) and "healthy" >as "un-sick" (momocu). not consistent at all but i tried >reversely "clean" as "un-dirty" and that sounded weird to >me.
I'd suppose, rather, 'sick' = 'un-healthy' (viewed as normal vs. abnormal conditions). This has precedents in the natlangs, too: Russian _nezdorov_ = (is) ill (temporarily, not seriously) < _zdorov_ '(is) well'.
>i'm quite sure it's because of spoken french where >"dirty" is "paprop" and "healthy" is "pamalad" as in "mwa >shüpaprop me shüpamalad nõpü" "i'm no clean but no sick >either".
"Spoken French"? It looks like a perfect creole! Where is it "spoken"? Basilius -

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Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>