Re: Strategies for disambiguating ad*

Hi!

Yahya Abdal-Aziz writes:
>...
> *** ObConLang, two questions for you:
> A.  Do you have any conlang in which adverbs and adjectives may have
> the same form, as in Malay?
>
> B.  If so, what strategies do you use to help listeners decide
> whether a given word functions as an adjective or as an adverb in a
> given utterance?
Tyl Sjok has no inflection.  In some extent, order and particles are
used to disambiguate, but for the main part, this language is highly
ambiguous and relies on semantical constraints for utterances to be
understood correctly.


Then, my Qthyn|gai has no distinction between adverbs and adjectives,
since it has no distinction between nouns and verbs.  However, you can
usually map these concepts to the words in a given Qthyn|gai sentence,
of course.  Modifiers in Qthyn|gai show clearly what phrase they
modify, so there are few (if any) ambiguities of the adverb or
adjective type.  An example (leaving out most (really) gory details of
Qthyn|gai morphology) shows how word order disambiguates:

  new-GEN build-PRD road-PAT.
  'A/The road is/was newly built.'

  build-PRD new-GEN road-PAT.
  'A/The new road is/was built.'

  PRD - predicative case
  PAT - patientive case
  GEN - genitive case

(Let's assume for simplicity that when 'new' modifies 'build', the
semantics are well-defined.)


Further, Da Mätz se Basa uses word order and particles for
disambiguation:

  Di bau de hau Turm.
  'They build the good tower.'

  Di bau de Turm hau.
  'They build the tower well.'


Finally, Tesäfköm has neither advectives nor adverbs -- you need to
use a (different) relative clause for each.

**Henrik