Monday, December 9, 2002

First thoughts on syntax

I see the man = ni nae ka mehe

The man is seen = ka mehe pa nae

I give a cucumber = ni ana sihi

I give the cucumber to the man = ni ana ka sihi ka mehe

The cucumber is given (away) = Ka sihi pa ana

The man is given the cucumber = Ka mehe lo ana ka sihi

The man is given the cucumber by the dog = Ka mehe lo ana ka sihi ka keli


I saw the man to whom the dog gave a cucumber =

     Ni si nae ka mehe lo ana sihi ka keli. or

     Ni si nae ka mehe o ka keli ana sihi ti.


I saw the man who was given to the dog =

      Ni si nae ka mehe pa ana ka keli. or

      Ni si nae ka mehe o i ana ti ka keli.


Note in this last example that in phrase type (1) we have an original sentence:

X i ana ka mehe ka keli, inverted with "pa" to:

Ka mehe i pa ana X ka keli.

The question is how we tell whether "ka keli" here is the agent or the beneficiary! We need rules or something about what can be deleted.


We need the indefinite article. "u"?:

      Ni nae u mehe "I see some unspecified man", as opposed to

      Ni nae mehe "I see men in general," "I men-see."

In this example, though, we see that there needs to be a better definition of what the Y in the XY verbal position actually means--if "ni kulo lika" means "I milk-drink," meaning drink milk partitively, what is actually the difference between this and the "u" article? It's possible that the articled form would be preferable because it both clearly marks the noun and leaves that position open for adverbial usage: "Kaca i colo koa" = "Karen runs well." Not sure what'd be the best here.


I hopi a colo = He likes running

I hopi se colo koa = He likes that you run well, he likes your running well


An important question is whether, as in Loglan, using the passivity prefixes actually switches the arguments (which would be nice because it would be possible to specify the agent of a "passive" verb) or simply removes the original agent/subject, so that passivity is not allowed simply for emphasis; of course, in "relative clauses" this switching is highly desirable as there is no other way to classify the syntactic role of the head noun as anything other than subject.


My dog likes cucumbers = Ka keli o ni i hopi (u) sihi / O ni ka keli i hopi (u) sihi


Is a "counting word" necessary? Perhaps so, to disambiguate what would otherwise be long strings of perhaps unidentifiable monosyllables:


I see two dogs = Ni nae he (pi) keli

I see 21 dogs = Ni nae he-ca (pi) keli

I see 215 dogs = Ni nae he-ca-pu (pi) keli


Yes, definitely--without that marker the number morphemes are way too hard to isolate.


Are the correlatives to be classed as individual lexemes? That is, besides "ke a" = "which thing?" should there be "kea" = "grasshopper"?


Tia i kea? = What is that? or Is that a grasshopper?

Kea sa tia? = What is that? or Is that a grasshopper?


I think that pretty much resolves the issue. :) Correlatives must be set aside as separate words as soon as we define the morphemes.


Real question: what is the difference between these sentences?:


1. ka cumo koa "the good cucumber"

2. ka cumo o koa "the cucumber of goodness" / "the good one's cucumber"

3. ka cumo o a koa "the cucumber of goodness"

4. ka cumo o ka koa "the good one's cucumber"

5. ka cumo o u koa "a good one's cucumber"


Clearly (2) needs to be better defined. Maybe it's a shortening of (4)? We'll think about it.


What did you see = Se si nae kea? Kea sa se si nae?

Whom did you see = Se si nae keka? Keka sa se si nae?


TOPICALIZATION


I gave the man the squash = Ni sa si ana ka cumo ka mehe

It was the squash that I gave to the man =

      Ka cumo sa ni si ana ka mehe (?), Ka cumo sa i si pa ana ni ka mehe

It was the man that I gave the squash to =

      Ka mehe sa i si lo ana ni ka cumo.

I gave the squash to the man = *Ana sa ni ka cumo ka mehe (???)


VERB AFFIXATION


subject pronoun negation tense passivity locative stem question adverb arguments

Kaca i na si lo ana ko ka sihi? = Karen wasn't given the cucumber?