Re: CHAT: New Member With Questions

En réponse à Brandon Denny <brandonjdenny@...>:

> Hello!
Welcome Brandon!

> What a wonderful resource this group is!
We're happy that it pleases you.

> My name is Brandon, and I am in the process of creating a small language
> to
> use in stories that I author (I only need a rudimentary vocabulary).  I
> am
> totally amatuer, and would like to ask for help.  I would imagine that
> group
> members get sick of new members asking the same old questions
> repeatedly,
> but
> I'd like to ask some:
>
Don't be shy to ask, we're never getting sick of questions, whatever they are,
because we always learn something more about language.

> 1)  Word Classes.  What the heck is this?  Obviously I am familiar with
> the
> basics, i.e. Noun, Verb, Adverb, Adjective.  When searching on-line I
> found
> repeated references to classes that exist in other languages that do
> not
> fit
> into those categories; unfortunatly those sites gave no explanations.
> Does
> anyone know anything about those other classes?
>
Well, even in English you cannot fit prepositions in any of these classes, so
you have one class more. In many languages, you have what are called
"particles", small words that really don't fit in any of the classes you put as
examples, and which have a variety of use, depending on the language and varying
also within one language. Also, pronouns often don't fit in the category of
nouns (like in English or French, where pronouns are different when they are
subjects or objects of verbs, while nouns don't change in this case. It means
that pronouns kept the category of case lost by nouns, and thus cannot be
comprised in the same category).

Also, you may want to know that grammarians of other languages sometimes use the
same word classes differently from us. For instance, Arabic grammarians
recognize three word classes in their language: nouns, verbs and particles,
where nouns contain what we call nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbal nouns, some
prepositions and even some suffixes!

> 2)  Again With Word Classes.  Can a language make a distiction in
> class
> between, say, a proper noun, and a abstract noun?  Does any know of
> any
> languages that do?
>
In a way, you can argue that French does, since in French common nouns are
always preceeded with an article, while proper nouns are never so (except when
preceeded with an adjective).

>
> 4)  *Disclaimer-This is possibly a foolish question*  Let us say that
> there
> is a language with noun cases (basic ones the system I'd like to use
> is
> more
> complex).  In this language noun declension is, basically, adding a
> suffix.
>
> Example:  N+Non, N+Acc, N+Gen, where N is the noun.
>
> Let us also say that we have a few other cases such as an Ablative,
> "from"
> represented by N+Abl.
> If I wanted to say, "The Man came from China," would the sentance be:
> (In SOV format)
> Man+Nom Come.Past China.Acc
> Or
> Man+Nom Come.Past China.Abl
>
> Which case suffix has precedence?  I am only familiar with cases
> through
> Latin, and I never paid much attention to this subject (assuming if
> ever
> came
> up).  Are there languages where this conflict occurs?  How do they
> resolve
> it?
>
I don't understand where the conflict is. To me, "The man came from China" has
to be said as:
Man+Nom Come.Past China+Abl (which is SVO by the way)
since that's what fits with the meaning. The other way just doesn't seem correct
to me, though maybe other languages (without an ablative) may do so.

> 5)  Is there a FAQ for this list with common abbreviations, etiquette,
> and
> style guides on it?  If so where are they located?
>
I don't think there is such an FAQ (though I remember some discussion about
doing one. Has it been done finally?). As for abbreviations, we use the common
ones like AKAIK: As Far As I Know, BTW: By The Way, IMHO: In My Humble Opinion,
etc... There is nothing like a style guide here (everyone has his/her own style
and we're happy with the variety). As for etiquette, well, the only real no-no
here are flaming and spamming (flaming is quite rare here and spamming mostly
unknown anyway). For the rest, mutual respect is the only thing people are asked
for. That's what makes this list so nice to participate in.

Again, welcome to the list Brandon, we're always happy with having new members.
I hope I was of some help. Please share what you came up with as soon as you
have something presentable (or even before), and don't be afraid to ask more
questions if you need to :) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr