Re: All-verb language - instalment 1

----- Original Message -----
From: "Estel Telcontar" <estel_telcontar@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 2:31 AM
Subject: All-verb language - instalment 1


> Hi Everyone,
>
> I decided it's time to introduce youguys to a little bit of what I'm
> coming up with for my all-verb language.  Today, I'm just going to
> introduce the different kinds of verbs.  I don't have any phonetic
> content worked out yet, so I'll just give glosses.
>
> There are 4 different main categories of verbs, distinguished mainly on
> semantic grounds.  The different types correspond somewhat to different
> parts of speech in most languages; however, all inflect alike.
>
> 1.  Normal verbs.
> Not much comment needed.  Plain ordinary transitive and intransitive
> verbs:
> RUN, EAT, SLEEP, HIT, etc.
>
> 2. "Adjectival verbs".
> That's what I call them.  I suspect they're sposta be called "stative
> verbs".  Essentially equivalent to English "BE" + adjective, and
> usually intransitive (maybe always.):
> BE.OLD, BE.GREEN, BE.TALL, etc.
>
> 3. "Prepositional verbs".
> These come in 2 subcategories, "motional" and "locational", I'm calling
> them for now.  Both types are normally, if not always, transitive.
> Locational prepositional verbs are essentially equivalent to English
> "BE" + preposition:
> BE.ON, BE.IN, BE.BESIDE, etc.
> Motional prepositional verbs are essentially equivalent to English "GO"
> + preposition:
> GO.ON(TO), GO.IN(TO) (=ENTER), etc.
>
> 4. "Nominal verbs"
> Essentially equivalent to English "BE" + noun.  Can be intransitive or
> transitive.  If intransitive, meaning is as above:
> BE.[a/the]HUMAN, BE.DOG, BE.HOUSE, etc.
> If transitive, the syntactic direct object is semantically a posessor,
> so transitive nominal verbs might be glossed thus:
> BE.HOUSE.OF, BE.DOG.OF
>
> That's all the four categories.  All words belong to one of these
> categories.  What do youguys think?
So, the sentences would look like this:

it is a dog.  it is lying.  it is on it. it is the carpet.

> Estel
>
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