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

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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