Search found 287 matches

by chris_notts
Sun Oct 19, 2014 4:59 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: In search of isolating conlangs
Replies: 158
Views: 40744

Re: In search of isolating conlangs

That's a good point; even the English preposition I used in my example can't always be said to be phonologically independent. At least in casual speech it often behaves (in the dialect I'm most familiar with) as if cliticized to the preceding word, such that "go to the market" is realized as [goɾə ...
by chris_notts
Sun Oct 19, 2014 4:32 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: In search of isolating conlangs
Replies: 158
Views: 40744

Re: In search of isolating conlangs

chris_notts--good points about Basque. Shouldn't the cases really be analyzed as clitics, since they don't always and invariably attach to nouns? Well, yes they are clitics, I think. But they are more interesting clitics than English prepositions as they form a small closed class, and some of them ...
by chris_notts
Sun Oct 19, 2014 12:05 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: In search of isolating conlangs
Replies: 158
Views: 40744

Re: In search of isolating conlangs

More importantly, speech.SEC and MID look like morphemes to me and certainly not independent ones, so why are you analysing them as independent morphemes? Is it because you're writing them separately and you really want your language to be isolating? I hope not! In any case, what is your case for c...
by chris_notts
Sat Oct 18, 2014 4:36 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Sound Change Quickie Thread
Replies: 2827
Views: 613933

Re: Sound Change Quickie Thread

Are there any plausible routes for turning aspiration before a consonant into schwa? (Thus e.g. /pʰdoɣa/ → /pǝdoɣa/.) Well, aspiration is realised as a voiceless burst after the consonant. If the consonant is followed by an obstruent, and especially another stop, or is word final, then normally I t...
by chris_notts
Sat Oct 18, 2014 4:21 am
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: In search of isolating conlangs
Replies: 158
Views: 40744

Re: In search of isolating conlangs

mate what are you doing. Your choice of awful unreadable colour coding for unclear reasons is making my head feel unusually explosive but uh... what? Compounding and isolating are indeed not mutually exclusive, but you're not doing compounding as far as I can see, you're just bizarrely overglossing...
by chris_notts
Mon Feb 24, 2014 5:08 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Gardening Splinter Thread
Replies: 160
Views: 45320

Re: The Gardening Splinter Thread

It's a mixture of fencing I got off freecycle as firewood and broken pallets. My local Wicks has a box of free scrap timber out the back, and I got a carload of broken pallets out of a skip in a reclamation yard by asking nicely. Really? I've never seen free scrap wood at Wickes before. I'll have t...
by chris_notts
Sun Feb 23, 2014 3:43 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Gardening Splinter Thread
Replies: 160
Views: 45320

Re: The Gardening Splinter Thread

I've just built a raised bed! I only paid for the nails, so that's good. I'm going to build another one soon, and I need to get my hands on some more free compost, as mine has been mined as much as was possible. God tupping dammit, shoveling compost is hard work. I'm trying to gather the energy to ...
by chris_notts
Wed Feb 05, 2014 11:34 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Guess the Language, anyone?
Replies: 1352
Views: 221354

Re: Guess the Language, anyone?

Radagast revived wrote:Bozo...
Don't be mean! :-D
by chris_notts
Sat Feb 01, 2014 1:40 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Locus of emotions
Replies: 11
Views: 3471

Re: Locus of emotions

You're right of course that that one example wouldn't tell us much, and that there is no stock set of consistent metaphors that can't be expanded at will by speakers of any given language. I wasn't intending to get only a yes no answer to that - it was an example of the type of emotional metaphor I ...
by chris_notts
Sat Feb 01, 2014 11:13 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Locus of emotions
Replies: 11
Views: 3471

Re: Locus of emotions

Does this usage reflect a difference in conception, or is it only skin deep? What kind of metaphorical language for emotion is there?

For example, can someone explode with anger in Goidelic?
by chris_notts
Sat Feb 01, 2014 11:11 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Gardening Splinter Thread
Replies: 160
Views: 45320

Re: The Gardening Splinter Thread

I think the "well rotted" stuff is good for a bit of instant fertiliser, and works a bit better for dug gardens. Fresh stuff is good for permaculture gardens, as they suppress weeds, but eventually break down and become soil, but it's a process and not for "instant results". Also it attract worms a...
by chris_notts
Sat Jan 25, 2014 10:38 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Gardening Splinter Thread
Replies: 160
Views: 45320

Re: The Gardening Splinter Thread

We took straw from the goat house and spread around the strawberries. One of my neighbours owns a horse. When I buy manure in bagged form it usually says "well rotted". I've been wondering - does this mean that if I get free manure from my neighbour I need to leave it to rot for a while before digg...
by chris_notts
Sat Jan 25, 2014 10:37 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Gardening Splinter Thread
Replies: 160
Views: 45320

Re: The Gardening Splinter Thread

Things showing signs of leafing out right now (in January!!!): - Some raspberry canes (1 month early - usually Feb in my experience) - Japanese quinces (could be normal, they were very early last year as well) - Goumi (I've never grown this before, so I don't know) - Hawthorn hedge, or at least one ...
by chris_notts
Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:46 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Locus of emotions
Replies: 11
Views: 3471

Locus of emotions

I saw this while browsing, and it made me think of where speakers of different languages think that different emotions are located: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/12/26/1321664111.full.pdf+html One interesting question is whether the areas from the survey for different emotions correspond me...
by chris_notts
Thu Jan 23, 2014 2:02 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: If natlangs were conlangs...
Replies: 120
Views: 29702

Re: If natlangs were conlangs...

Are you talking specifically about the rise of prenasalised consonants in Proto-Oceanic? You might not be, because prenasalisation is a thing in a lot of Austronesian languages even outside of POc. But if you are, my understanding is that the theory goes that initial prenasalised stops (which can t...
by chris_notts
Wed Jan 22, 2014 3:52 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Non-Tolkienian fantasy
Replies: 61
Views: 18789

Re: Non-Tolkienian fantasy

Ricardo Pinto's The Stone Dance of the Chameleon is pretty much the antithesis of your pulp sword-and-sorcery fantasy. With LGBT lead characters, some fantastically deep worldbuilding (with strong mesoamerican influences), a well-done conlang and conscript (the former is split-ergative, the latter ...
by chris_notts
Wed Jan 22, 2014 3:03 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Non-Tolkienian fantasy
Replies: 61
Views: 18789

Re: Non-Tolkienian fantasy

Tad William's Tailchaser's Song It is a work of fantasy about a cat, with bad conlanging but great conworlding. Humans are strange eldritch creatures, the cats have their own myths that tie into the plot, and the closest things to other "races" are other species of animals that Tailchaser runs into...
by chris_notts
Wed Jan 22, 2014 2:45 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Evidentiality with multiple verbs
Replies: 3
Views: 1837

Re: Evidentiality with multiple verbs

I think it is quite common for some subordinate and complement clauses to be in forms which show reduced or no evidentiality distinctions. However, this probably doesn't normally apply to all subordination and complementation strategies - Tariana, for example, has evidentiality in direct speech (in...
by chris_notts
Wed Jan 22, 2014 1:41 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Non-Tolkienian fantasy
Replies: 61
Views: 18789

Re: Non-Tolkienian fantasy

Daistallia wrote: Anne McCaffrey's Pern is arguably fantasy and certainly not Tolkienian.
I went through a period in my teens when I loved everything from Anne McCaffrey. I've since tried rereading some of them though and somehow they've gotten much worse in the last 15 - 20 years.
by chris_notts
Wed Jan 22, 2014 1:13 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Evidentiality with multiple verbs
Replies: 3
Views: 1837

Re: Evidentiality with multiple verbs

You should read a book called "Evidentiality" by Aikhenvald which discusses how it works in different languages. I have a copy somewhere, but my books are a mess since my house move so I can't find it. I did find my grammar of Tariana though, which is a language with evidentiality. Does anyone know ...
by chris_notts
Tue Jan 21, 2014 6:28 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Non-Tolkienian fantasy
Replies: 61
Views: 18789

Re: Non-Tolkienian fantasy

I also think that the different between the two might be due to something basic about basic human story telling preferences. Tolkien wrote heroic adventure stories, which is pretty much the oldest genre of story we have recorded. Every culture, no matter its level of development, has stories about h...
by chris_notts
Tue Jan 21, 2014 6:03 pm
Forum: None of the above
Topic: Non-Tolkienian fantasy
Replies: 61
Views: 18789

Re: Non-Tolkienian fantasy

I've for a long time been fascinated by the fact that in the Gormenghast books, although they seem to fall fairly naturally in the category of "fantasy", there is an absence of magic or the magical. Specifically, it's interesting to me that more authors haven't done similar - the Tolkienian style h...
by chris_notts
Tue Jan 21, 2014 4:18 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: If natlangs were conlangs...
Replies: 120
Views: 29702

Re: If natlangs were conlangs...

Proto-Austronesian has several phonemes which are certain, but what they are is by no means clear; I think that's part of what is being referenced. The thing that always seems weird to me about Austronesian reconstruction is, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't they reconstruct two stop series (say ...
by chris_notts
Mon Jan 20, 2014 4:50 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Haedus SCA - Bugfix (01/24)
Replies: 62
Views: 21936

Re: Haedus SCA - Bugfix (01/06)

Are !(abc) and !{a b c} intended to be special cases, or can you put ! before any (complex) pattern and get a result? In HaSC you can negate more or less any pattern, so e.g the following would be fine: (CC(a|e|i)(k|m)i~)~ = match a sequence that isn't: two consonants + a,e,or i + k or m + not i Why...
by chris_notts
Sun Jan 19, 2014 11:02 am
Forum: None of the above
Topic: The Gardening Splinter Thread
Replies: 160
Views: 45320

Re: The Gardening Splinter Thread

I've got alpine strawberries right in the middle of my vegetable patch - they're pretty hardy and pretty tasty. I always think that alpine strawberries have the same amount of flavour as "normal" strawberries, but packed into a much smaller fruit. That makes the flavour per gram much more intense -...