Re: Request for COMMENTS

le jeu 11-07-2002 à 10:27, Jim Grossmann a écrit :
> Hi, everybody,
>
> Thanks in advance for any comments you have on my latest conlang idea...
>
> http://www.eccentrix.com/misc/rainchild/thumbnail.html
>
> ...the germ of simple-yet-strange (to the English speaker) syntax.
Hi,

First I would suggest that you add for motion, 'origin' for the second
argument, as :
The man comes from London.

I don't know if it will be helpfull, but I give you Dik's classification
of States of Affairs (SoA), which is to me a very clever (though not
perfect) classification (SoA's in sabyuka are greatly inspired by
Dik's). Here it is (simplified) :



-----------------------------------SoA----------------------------------

-------------[- dynamic]----------------------- [+dynamic]--------------
--------------Situation---------------------------Event-----------------


---[-+control]---------[-control]--------[-+control]-------[-control]---
----Position-------------State------------Action-------------Process----



So :

Position : John (positioner) keeps money in an old sock
State : The ball (zero) is in the box.
Action : John (Agent) broke the pen.
Process : John (processed) is sleeping.


Of course it is really more consistent, but I think it could help to
distinguish, for instance, between a controlled change and a non
controlled change.
The man turned into an owl.
vs
The man made himself pretty (don't know if it's correct english, but I
hope you understand what I mean ;)).

If you're interested in knowing more about that, you can read "The
Theory of Functional Grammar", vol1, Simon C. Dik.It is easy-reading :).


Julien.