Search found 54 matches
- Sun Jun 03, 2018 6:47 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: How to conflate verbs with verbal nouns
- Replies: 2
- Views: 4306
Re: How to conflate verbs with verbal nouns
So let me get this straight. You mean a language where there is no noun that corresponds to the action expressed by the verb, i.e. there is not separate form that correspond to the second member of do vs. action, perform vs. performance. It's worth noting that such noun are very commonly repurposed ...
- Tue May 29, 2018 2:35 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
- Replies: 2225
- Views: 461260
Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
And lastly, a hotbed of diversity in a language family is likely to be near the original homeland, but it can emerge secondarily off the centre, e.g. if branch after branch moves into it. Clearly you have no familiarity with the concept of evolutionary radiation . While radiation is better seen in ...
- Tue May 22, 2018 9:19 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Faites-le le
- Replies: 10
- Views: 8470
Re: Faites-le le
Faites-le le plus souvent faites-le le soir du 23 décembre Faites-les les lire I don't think I do anything special here. The second le will often be reduced to /l/ with the schwa elided, if the following word starts with a consonant that isn't /l/. Also, there will often be an intonation break betw...
- Thu May 03, 2018 7:48 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Languages without Quantifier Hopping?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 10439
Re: Languages without Quantifier Hopping?
For French, permettre allows a pretty neat separation thanks to the ne...que restrictive negation, though one of the meanings (marked with *) requires a passive construction and cannot be expressed in an active "voice" Satan ne permet qu'aux conlangers de faire des auxlangs. = (Only conlangers) can ...
- Thu May 03, 2018 7:09 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: /ɑ/ /ɛː/ in Quebec / Belgian French: inflectional paradigm?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 4178
Re: /ɑ/ /ɛː/ in Quebec / Belgian French: inflectional paradi
il a ↔ tu as; il va ↔ tu vas; il mangera ↔ tu mangeras; il dîna (past historic) ↔ tu dînas (past historic) ↔ (qu')il dînât (imperfect subjunctive); il sait ↔ je sais, tu sais; il fait ↔ je fais, tu fais; il changerait ↔ je changerais, tu changerais; il pensait ↔ je pensais, tu pensais; il connaît ↔...
- Sat Apr 28, 2018 12:59 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: What do you call...
- Replies: 22
- Views: 14359
Re: What do you call...
I have the vague feeling the curt formulation is also a problem in Zompist's examples. E-H are all dubious to unacceptable for me, yet these versions seem to work: E1: Before he'd even eaten lunch, Noam Chomsky had fainted. G1: Before the sheep had bitten him, Noam Chomsky had already fainted. H1: I...
- Mon Apr 16, 2018 6:07 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Relative clauses: cross-linguistic comparison
- Replies: 23
- Views: 13934
Re: Relative clauses: cross-linguistic comparison
While we're on the topic, I'm curious to ask: how "normal" are relative clauses where the relativized noun is not an argument at all cross-linguistically? (are they even relatives proper ) Stuff like "the reason why", "the place where/whence", "the year when" etc.
- Thu Mar 29, 2018 7:49 am
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Mfalen: an attempted initial sketch
- Replies: 20
- Views: 13000
Re: Mfalen: an attempted initial sketch
I had not noticed this post earlier, so apologies for this incredibly late answer. In-laws Traditional Mfalen society doesn't have a concept of in-laws because one of the two spouse is essentially adopted into the other's clan (i.e. come sunder the exclusive authority of that clan's leader for vario...
- Thu Mar 22, 2018 3:09 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Innovative Usage Thread
- Replies: 2452
- Views: 425689
Re: The Innovative Usage Thread
I know you're being somewhat mischievous, but doesn't it follow right up from the assumption that "this" can now clearly be used as an onomatopoeia/sentence word? Just checking on my linguistic analysis instinct. Well, in standard English "this" is a pronoun— more precisely a pro-NP. Pronouns can't...
- Sun Mar 18, 2018 6:01 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: The Innovative Usage Thread
- Replies: 2452
- Views: 425689
Re: The Innovative Usage Thread
Something I saw on Twitter the other day: This. So much this. All the this. I'm pretty sure this is impossible according to X-bar theory. :) I know you're being somewhat mischievous, but doesn't it follow right up from the assumption that "this" can now clearly be used as an onomatopoeia/sentence w...
- Sat Mar 17, 2018 10:40 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Sebastic (Semitic lang) Workpad [NP: Ergativity? Discussion)
- Replies: 44
- Views: 29030
Re: Sebastic (Semitic lang) Workpad [NP: Ergativity? Discuss
I'd like to make sure I get this right. You want a construction where a verb which is normally intransitive with an absolutive subject acquires a second argument without the subject changing case, right? I.e. you want a transformation X-abs VERB.int-aspect → X-abs VERB.int-aspect-[?marker] Y-[?case]...
- Sat Mar 17, 2018 4:06 am
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Sebastic (Semitic lang) Workpad [NP: Ergativity? Discussion)
- Replies: 44
- Views: 29030
Re: Sebastic (Semitic lang) Workpad [NP: Ergativity? Discuss
The "transitive" version's second mandatory argument (assuming it is truly mandatory) could simply not be ergative? That is the verb is not syntactically transitive, but its meaning still change, so you have an absolutive subject and an "object" in, say, the dative.
- Mon Jan 01, 2018 7:28 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Quick question about French
- Replies: 7
- Views: 3099
Re: Quick question about French
I can confirm that there are no words with the sequence /yj/ word-finally. The words in Zompist's list are either written -ouill , or have another vowel afterwards so the sequence is /ɥijV/. Actually, the sequence (well, its analogue/-ɥij/ anyway) occurs word-finally in aiguille . You'll also hear ...
- Sat Dec 16, 2017 11:32 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Internet slang dating: is IIRC a somehow aging abbreviation?
- Replies: 26
- Views: 8581
Re: Internet slang dating: is IIRC a somehow aging abbreviat
I had never considered this. It's true that I became a netizen well before the advent of social media as we know it today. Thinking on it, that probably explains my aversion to emojis... "Netizen" is another dead giveaway. True enough XD I've advised my mom that she looks either fifteen or sixty-fi...
- Sat Dec 16, 2017 11:22 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Internet slang dating: is IIRC a somehow aging abbreviation?
- Replies: 26
- Views: 8581
Re: Internet slang dating: is IIRC a somehow aging abbreviat
I think there is a generational issue, yes. But there's also a subcultural issue. Most of the internet abbreviations, ime, are primarily used by what you might call internet 'natives' - people who use the internet extensively, not merely as a tool for organising their RL, and who use parts of the i...
- Fri Dec 15, 2017 8:09 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Internet slang dating: is IIRC a somehow aging abbreviation?
- Replies: 26
- Views: 8581
Re: Internet slang dating: is IIRC a somehow aging abbreviat
FWIW (another I've had people asking about, as it happens <<;;;) by "significantly younger" I mean early-to-mid 20s, so people who have been online for around half their lives.
- Fri Dec 15, 2017 2:32 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Internet slang dating: is IIRC a somehow aging abbreviation?
- Replies: 26
- Views: 8581
Internet slang dating: is IIRC a somehow aging abbreviation?
(Hopefully this is the best forum for this thread.) I started coming regularly on the internet in the mid-nineties, and have always been a frequent user of various IM abbreviations. Recently (i.e. in the last couple years), I've had multiple people ask me what "IIRC" ("If I Remember Correctly"). Now...
- Wed Dec 13, 2017 9:57 am
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Getting rid of grammatical features
- Replies: 12
- Views: 4578
Re: Getting rid of grammatical features
Maybe an alternative to "the" gets more widely used - some English speakers will use "that" in preference to "the" - and then the work that "the" does becomes more and more marginal. "That" might take on the functions of "the" in marking definiteness, or it might not. Although in that case one migh...
- Sat Dec 02, 2017 11:04 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Kinship: children of cousins?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4605
Re: Kinship: children of cousins?
Children of your cousins are, more technically, your "first cousins once removed". Those kids, and your own kids, are "second cousins". (I.e. second cousins are people whose parents are first cousins.) I am well aware of that, but these fall into the same opposition between english in-laws and the ...
- Sat Dec 02, 2017 6:26 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Kinship: children of cousins?
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4605
Kinship: children of cousins?
I've never seen a kinship chart that includes this particular relationship (they only ever seem to include children of siblings), so I wondered the obvious: does any natural language have dedicated terms for children of cousins?
- Sat Nov 11, 2017 11:36 am
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Mfalen: an attempted initial sketch
- Replies: 20
- Views: 13000
Re: Mfalen: an attempted initial sketch
I like this, but wouldn't the "reveal" ones be better ordered the other way around? Revealing the object is the result of a physical motion there, which in the other three verbs comes at the end of the word. In the case of reveal , the usage started as one of those cases of high-literary ditransiti...
- Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:01 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Mfalen: an attempted initial sketch
- Replies: 20
- Views: 13000
Re: Mfalen: an attempted initial sketch
A few tidbits I wanted to show off/jot down: The three meanings of verbs An example: Base verb: EAT (deverbal root: food/meat, the Mfalen assimilate most plant matter very poorly) Intransitive: have a meal Transitive: eat something ("you gotta eat to live" would is a deobjective) Bitransitive: eat s...
- Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:51 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Mfalen: an attempted initial sketch
- Replies: 20
- Views: 13000
Re: Mfalen: an attempted initial sketch
In a bid to get things back on track... Interesting. Makes me think of Adyghe actually. Actually, as you'll see, it's a lot closer to Russian, with a (C)(C)V(C) structure that generally disallows vowel hiatuses. I wanted something that was definitely a little out there compared to Standard Western ...
- Thu Sep 21, 2017 7:36 am
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Mfalen: an attempted initial sketch
- Replies: 20
- Views: 13000
Re: Mfalen: an attempted initial sketch
I'm sorry, when did it "get suddenly hijacked"? Did you not bring up egalitarian and matriarchal societies? Is it that surprising that a discussion of patriarchy might follow from that? Let's just say that I think a debate on what real world societies were or weren't misogynist patriarchies and the...
- Wed Sep 20, 2017 5:16 pm
- Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
- Topic: Mfalen: an attempted initial sketch
- Replies: 20
- Views: 13000
Re: Mfalen: an attempted initial sketch
(One day I will be able to start threads on here that don't get suddenly hijacked over a trivial matter)