Re: my next project: language of the Mandai

 --- Tom Little <tom@...> wrote: > Hi folks -
>
> My next project is a language for a people called
> the Mandai, who tend to
> view their experience not in terms of events, but in
> terms of
> relationships, with a strong preference for
> symmetrical relationships. I
> want to see how far I can push this idea. For
> example, the idea of A
> killing B would be rendering in terms of two
> relationships: conflict (in
> which A and B partake symmetrically) and
> (metaphorical) embrace between B
> and Death.
>
i'll be interested to see what you come up with.

my language bac, which i've posted a certain amount
about in the last few weeks, was originally conceived
as a language which didn't see verbs as actions of one
thing on another, but rather relationships. however,
maybe i didn't have your patience, and many of the
'relationships' only have one relandum ( some have
none (!) or three or four ). all the same, it eschews
transitivity.

i'ld like to see whether our schemes have anything in
common tho  . . . your analysis of murder as a pair of
relationships certainly has resonances !

bn

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