Re: Part-of-Speech Analysis Problem

Joseph Fatula wrote:
> This is going to sound really dumb.  I have a conlang I'm working on,
> and I understand how the grammar works (I think), but I'm having
> problems figuring out which parts of speech various words are.  Here
> are some really simple sentences in this conlang.*
>
> - Com Jan alma ave.  "John eats an apple."
> - Com Jan almar avest.  "John ate some apples."
> - Com Jan alma navest.  "John didn't eat an apple."
>
> - Ved sagin zeyelum cad.  "The hunter sees the deer."
> - Ved sagin zeyel cad.  "The hunter and the deer see each other."
>
> - Com zeyel alma ave.  "The deer eats an apple."
> - Com saginir almar ave.  "The hunters eat some apples."
> - Com sagin zeyelum cad.  "The hunter eats the deer."
> - Com sagin zeyelum necad.  "The hunter doesn't eat the deer."
>
> - Sagin Jan zeyelum cad.  "John hunts the deer."
> - Ved Jan sagin ave.  "John sees the prey."
> - Ved Janum saginus ave.  "The prey sees John."
> - Ved Jan saginum cad.  "John sees the hunter."
>
> - Ved com hat.  "The eater sees the food."
> - Ved sagin hat.  "The hunter sees the prey."
> - Com bay.  "The eater eats the food."
> - Sagin bay.  "The hunter hunts the prey."
> - Sagin nebayest.  "The hunter didn't hunt the prey."
>
> Any ideas?
As I'd expected, the ave, cad, etc. words caused the most problem. Let me try
making some sentences that show these a bit better. (By the way, this language
doesn't distinguish definite from indefinite, sorry I didn't make that clear up
front...)

Ved Jan sagin ave.  "John sees the prey."
Ved Janum saginus ave.  "The prey sees John."
Ved Jan sagin cad.  "John and the hunter see each other."
Ved Jan saginum cad.  "John sees the hunter."

Ved sagin zeyelum cad.  "The hunter sees the deer."
Ved sagin zeyel cad.  "The hunter and the deer see each other."
Ved saginum zeyel cad.  "The deer sees the hunter."

Sagin Jan zeyel cad.  "John and the deer hunt each other."  (not too likely, but never mind that)
Sagin Jan zeyelum cad.  "John hunts the deer."
Sagin Janum zeyel cad.  "The deer hunts John."

Ved Jan bor cad.  "John and the king see each other."
Ved Jan borum cad.  "John sees the king."
Ved Jan bor ave.  "John sees the commoner (lit. one who is ruled)."
Ved Jan borus ave.  "John and the commoner see each other."
Ved Janum borus ave.  "The commoner sees John."

Does that make it any better, or is it only more confusing?

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