Re: Part-of-Speech Analysis Problem

* Joseph Fatula said on 2007-03-14 13:27:56 +0100
> 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."
VSO

Jan = John
zeyel = deer
sagin = hunt/hunter
com = eat/eater
ved = see
n(e)- = not
-um = object, to disambiguate
-(i)r = plural

The tricky bits is ave (article?), cad (article?), hat and bay
(pronouns?)

Can ave, cad, bay and hat be used in the verb-position?

What about Jan and zeyel?

To have a null-derivation between verb and subject of verb isn't that
outrageous, likely an anadew even.

/snippage/

> - 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."
hat is default object for a verb, and not very affected by that verb?
bay is default object for a verb, but is very much affected by the verb?

I'd call these pronouns. Quite a neat system.

> Any ideas?
Were mine useful?


t.