Re: "to be" or "not to be"

My daughter and her roommate were at my apt this evening. Her roommate
speaks Korean as her parents are immigrants. She nearly fell off the
sofa laughing when I said, "Pabo-eyo!" Every time I said it she laughed
again, so I presume it will become some sort of joke for us all.
Thanks Eugene!

-----Original Message-----
From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On
Behalf Of Eugene Oh
Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2008 8:22 AM
To: CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu
Subject: Re: "to be" or "not to be"

On Sat, Jun 14, 2008 at 12:29 PM, Scotto Hlad <scott.hlad@...>
wrote:

> Precisely what I was thinking. Thank you!
>
> I thought it would be interesting the case of how strong would deny
> something using a negative copula. If combined with a negative
particle,
> one could have the positive copula with the negative particle, then
the
> negative copula, then the negative particle plus the negative copula.
>
> Example
>
> Child #1: You're silly.
> Child #2: I NEG.PARTICLE COPULA.
> Child #1: Yes you are.
> Child #2: I  NEG.COPULA!!
> Child #1: You are too!
> Child #2: I NEG.PARTICLE NEG.COPULA!!!
>
> Double negatives notwithstanding, emphasis would be come higher each
> time. Normally, one would simply use the negative copula, but this
> special case seems interesting to me.
>
> Can you name a few of the languages that do have the negative copula?
>
> Scotto
>
>
It slipped my mind, but Korean does have another verb that is exactly
the
negative copula! I kept racking my brains for it when I last replied but
couldn't remember. Now I do. The word's "anida".

So, your example conversation would be

A: Pabo-eyo! (Silly-person.COP)
B: Aniyeo! (No)
A: Keuraeyo! (That is so!)
B: Anieyo! (NEGCOP)
A: Keuraecchago!
B: Aniyeo, anieyo! (No, NEGCOP!)

Note, of course, the confusing similarity between "aniyeo" and "anieyo"
(a
conjugated form of "anida") when Romanised. When spoken or written in
Korean, the problem disappears.

Eugene