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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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Re: [glosalist] roberti - Committee on language planning, FIAS. Coordination: Vergara & Hardy, PhDs.