Late, late, I know. And only a few words: bunny, rabbit kykkull < cuniculus ferret þyrtur < furettus knife kyltill...
142692
Mark J. Reed
markjreed@...
Oct 1, 2006 2:59 pm
Found in a collection of posts by the late John M. "Mike" Ford: English is the noise made by people who don't believe you can use language but want your stuff...
142693
Kate
snapping.dragon@...
Oct 1, 2006 3:46 pm
Some of you might be interested in this: http://del.icio.us/kutsuwamushi I thought it would be nice to publish the helpful (to me) links that I find while...
142694
Gary Shannon
fiziwig@...
Oct 1, 2006 6:06 pm
Does a conlang need the infinitive? I don't think so. In English, sentences can be analyzed in a way that does not even admit the existence of the infinitive. ...
142695
Andreas Johansson
andjo@...
Oct 1, 2006 6:20 pm
... No, a conlang doesn't necessarily have an infinitive. [snip really strange stuff about English grammar] May I ask why you spend so much time on...
142696
Gary Shannon
fiziwig@...
Oct 1, 2006 6:43 pm
... I simply use English for illustrative purposes. It's much quicker to explore the possibilities of an idea that way than to have to build a whole conlang ...
142697
Andreas Johansson
andjo@...
Oct 1, 2006 7:01 pm
... It'd taken you less than a minute to ask if there are any infinitiveless natlangs ... (I'd, of course, be inclined to dispute that you "accomplished"...
142698
R A Brown
ray@...
Oct 1, 2006 7:32 pm
... Of course it doesn't - as there are natlangs that do not have infinitives, clearly conlangs can do without them. ... Well, I'll just quote one sentence...
142699
Philip Newton
philip.newton@...
Oct 1, 2006 7:49 pm
... So? That just means that "go" is the infinitive. It's certainly not a form that inflects for person, number, or tense: He hasta go home. *He hasta goes...
142700
Philip Newton
philip.newton@...
Oct 1, 2006 7:57 pm
... And I don't know much about Bulgarian, but here's a bit of info on Modern Greek. Modern Greek has a form called the "infinitive" (aparemphato), but it ...
142701
Philip Newton
philip.newton@...
Oct 1, 2006 7:59 pm
... Though since the second construction is sometimes clunky, they sometimes reach for a "proper" noun instead -- I'd translate "Smoking is forbidden" as...
142702
Roger Mills
rfmilly@...
Oct 1, 2006 9:00 pm
... Kash does something like that, also with nods to both Spanish and Indonesian: Indo.: saya mau pulang (I want go-home) 'I want to go home' saya mau ia...
142703
Andreas Johansson
andjo@...
Oct 1, 2006 9:16 pm
... The word for an non-finite verb-form is "infinite";. The label "infinitive" is usually restricted to nounish infinite verb-forms. From your description, the...
142704
H. S. Teoh
hsteoh@...
Oct 2, 2006 12:00 am
... [...] I don't know about English, but certainly Tatari Faran has constructions that are markedly different from the verb + infinitive construct. For...
142705
Sai Emrys
sai@...
Oct 2, 2006 6:15 am
[BCCed to the meetup email list; email me if you want to be on it and aren't already] Google Calendar invite: ...
142706
R A Brown
ray@...
Oct 2, 2006 7:36 am
... Nor I, but from what I understand it works in essentially the same way as your examples you gave from modern Greek. Its sister language, Macedonian, also...
142707
John Vertical
johnvertical@...
Oct 2, 2006 11:00 am
Christopher Bates wrote: (...) ... Isn't this simply due to the two diffrent meanings of English "leave"? You seem to be trying to use the "departure" sense in...
142708
Henrik Theiling
theiling@...
Oct 2, 2006 12:34 pm
Hi! ... Ach, sorry, should have read the whole thread before asking... **Henrik...
142709
Henrik Theiling
theiling@...
Oct 2, 2006 12:51 pm
Hi! ... Which reminds me: Mr. Teoh, was it your Tatari Faran that uses adverbs instead of auxiliaries? (Like German adv. 'gerne' ~ English verb 'to like'?) ...
142710
Benct Philip Jonsson
bpjonsson@...
Oct 2, 2006 2:25 pm
... Swedish can express it both ways: _Jag skriver gärna_ or _jag tycker om att skriva_, with subtle stylistic differences. The form with the adverb can mean...
142711
Mark J. Reed
markjreed@...
Oct 2, 2006 2:33 pm
I'd just like to say that this has turned into an interesting thread despite the wrongheadedness of the initial post. Sorry, Gary, but I have no idea where...
142712
Andreas Johansson
andjo@...
Oct 2, 2006 3:51 pm
... My Tairezazh, with relatives, also use adverbs rather than auxiliaries to express moods, eg. _ta dhék_ "I go", _ta dhék zent_ "I want to go", where ...
142713
Gary Shannon
fiziwig@...
Oct 2, 2006 6:10 pm
... Just my own ignorance of languages other than the three I'm familiar with: English, Latin and German. :-)...
142714
H. S. Teoh
hsteoh@...
Oct 2, 2006 7:46 pm
On Mon, Oct 02, 2006 at 02:21:53PM +0200, Henrik Theiling wrote: [...] ... Yes, as explained in the other post. It's not completely free of auxilliaries,...
142715
Henrik Theiling
theiling@...
Oct 3, 2006 3:05 am
Hi! ... Sorry, I posted before reading the whole thread. ... Sounds like a gerund (also the examples above seem to indicate a gerund-like nature). And GND is...
142716
H. S. Teoh
hsteoh@...
Oct 3, 2006 3:55 am
... No problem. ... [...] The infinitive is perhaps closer to a relative verb: the case inflections are to indicate the subject NP's role in the sub-clause. In...
142717
R A Brown
ray@...
Oct 3, 2006 9:21 am
... [snip] ... What, pray, is a "typical" infinitive? ... None - 'tis only the baleful influence of Latin grammar. In Latin, as I have explained, although the...
142718
R A Brown
ray@...
Oct 3, 2006 9:51 am
H. S. Teoh wrote: [snip] ... Ooh - seems confusing to me. I can understand that _participial_ clause could be used instead of a relative clause. In ancient...
142719
H. S. Teoh
hsteoh@...
Oct 3, 2006 5:42 pm
... Maybe not. In which case, I'd like to be enlightened as to what is better terminology to describe what TF is doing. :-) Maybe "participle" is a better term...
