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Re: [glosalist] roberti
Robin Gaskell (Robin Gaskell <drought-breaker@...>) on June 11, 2003
At 02:40 PM 6/5/03 EDT, Sid grafo:
ROBERTI
An Veni
(1) Roberti telefono un an gina kusina Beti, …..
Using English: I think this clause might have come over better as … ~Roberti telefono an gina kusina Beti, … ~ [Robert telephones his wife’s cousin, Betty, …]
I assume that that was the intended message.
In the second NounPhrase, I'd say there are three semantic items:-
(using pseudo-Linguistic speak)
Determinant/NP-marker / OR alternative AN = his
Descriptive/Modifier GINA = wife's
Substantive KUSINA = cousin
The matter of 'Beti' seems, as in English, to be a supplementary phrase, repeating, or encapsulating, the meaning of the primary phrase. So, as in English, a comma could have been used to separate the 'phrases.
Thus, for style, I might have added a hyphen and a comma, but they are not essential to the syntax:-
~ ... an gina-kusina, Beti, ... ~
What I'd say is non-Glosa is the use of mutually exclusive elements at the ''Determinant/NP-marker / OR alternative'' end of the phrase.
It is either "the wife's cousin" = ~u gina kusina~
OR "his wife's cousin" = ~an gina kusina~
NOT BOTH "the his wife's cousin" \= ~un an gina kusina~*
(2) “Qe tu ski qo Skarbro es homo in Meno Mo Bi?
I have no complaint that Betty might speak like this using English-language idiom, But I am worried that, in communicating with someone outside the English-language area she might get ^wires crossed^ in using such vernacular English structure.
I feel that the word ~meteo~ would internationalise the context, and prevent Betty's sentence from sounding like relexified English, EG
~Qe, tu ski u meteo de Skarbro durante Meno Mo Bi?~
(3) “ Si tu veni, qo modo mi amusa vi?”
This is quite undersandable: the meaning is clear, and Betty's quandry is very understandable.
But "you" is either ~tu~ or ~vi~ depending on Number - not familiarity. So, Betty would correctly use ~tu~ when speaking to her cousin.
Sing. Plural Person 1 mi na
2 tu vi
3 an/fe/id mu
*** I will just have to wait to find out what made South Africa too hot for Robert to stay.
While I am not a Linguist, with apologies, I find some of their
terminology useful. For me, in previous Mail Lists, understanding what the linguistic terms meant, was a painful learning process - intuiting what they were going on about - because few of the terms were explained to the neophytes. I do not want to repeat that process here.
%%% But I did get my own back: in the difficult process of finding a descriptive term for Glosa’s style of grammar, I got no help from the Linguists; but I finally coined the term, “Syntax-based Grammar,” and that was accepted, as valid - though somewhat begrudgingly.
Saluta,
Robin Gaskell
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