Re: Verbless conlangs (was: Tense marked on nouns)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Knibb" <j_knibb@...>



> Sally Caves wrote:
> >Sorry, Jonathan.  I've been away for over a year, and I am
> >unfortunately unfamiliar with these other verbless languages.
> >I know Sylvia's by virtue of having met her in California and studied
> >her language a bit.  Hence my "famously".  Pace!  I'd love to see
> >how you've constructed T4.
>
> No problem!  I'd be the first to admit that T4 (was: Telona) is
> not a well publicised language.  I never seem to be satisfied enough
> with it to feel ready to post significant amounts -- and after six
> years it still doesn't have a lexicon ... blame mutating phonology.
Well, work on it, and start building a lexicon, because I find this
structure really fascinating.

> Anyway -- if you are interested <flattery alert> (and I would be
> deeply flattered if you are, as the composer of one of the
> best-known, most complete and most pleasing conlangs I know)
> </flattery>,
Flattery always successful :)  yry myeebihs, "me all blushing red."

there's a PDF summary at http://knibb.free.fr/main.html
> which is a year out of date but will give you a flavour.  My post last
> week about number and aspect is representative of the changes
> it's gone through in the last few months.
I must have missed your post.  But I took a look at your PDF summary, and I
find the concept elegant and logical.  I especially liked how your "full
words" both "refer" and "describe," something I hadn't thought about, and
how a phrase co-refers with its head.  This makes it possible for you to
take off "man" from Tane vumer pol echelye ["A man is running towards his
house"] and have it mean "Someone [is] running towards his house": vumer pol
echelye.  What a fine idea!  In this way, all "full words" are
nominalizations, in a way, so your language is verbless, but I think
uniquely so.  I'll have to go review Kelen to see how it differs.

> I'd be delighted to answer any specific questions about T4 on-
> or off-list (that goes for everyone else as well, natch).
Yeah, check it out.  :)   Sylvia's original intention was to present a
language that was alien to human thinking.  I wonder why no (or so very few?
any?) natural languages present verbs (or verblessness) in this way, but
what this suggests to me is that you have full words that could function as
verbs (as we know them, or in translations), but still refer to
"thing/someone in a state of running."

Sally
scaves@frontiernet.net
Py dydwc glein / O erddyngawt vein?
"What brings a gem from a hard stone?"
Book of Taliesin