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on 3/5/02 1:33 PM, Mike Wright at darwin@hidden.email wrote: > > Not to speak for Rex, but the Mandarin model, on which the Ceqli > syntax is partly based, does not have obligatory gender, tense, person > (other than in pronouns), number (other than in pronouns), > definiteness, or aspect. The speaker decides when such categories need > to be made explicit. Please speak away! I need the credibility of a Mandarin specialist on my side! > > In Mandarin, the main method for doing this is to add lexical items, > with particles being used mostly for aspect. > > So, to express tense, words such as "already", "will", "yesterday", > "next month", and so on are added at the speaker's discretion. To > express number, we just add words like "many/much", "few/little", > "some", "one", "three", and so on. There are no articles at all. When > definiteness is required, we use "this", "these", "that", and "those". > I would say that there is a default in this case, which is the indefinite. > > Contrast English, where we find ourselves saying things like "Each > student must use a combination lock for his/her locker or lockers." It > sometimes requires a bit of thought to avoid such clunkiness. > > English is a bit like those old computer programs where the user/users > sat and performed the task/tasks that she/he/they was/were instructed > to perform by the computer. This was replaced by a model where the > user is in charge most of the time. In Mandarin, at least to some > extent, the speaker is in charge of deciding what needs to be > expressed, because the speaker, presumably, is capable of judging when > the context permits the omission of certain kinds of specifiers. Yes, yes. If there's anything I'm forgetting to make optional, someone please tell me! Interestingly, a lot of what my Chinese grammar book tells me is an oddity of Mandarin with respect to English is actually the -same- as much colloquial English, wherein a lot of pronouns are left out. What's that? Dunno. And other words as well. In short, both Mandarin and my Festus-English can keep a lot of things optional, as can Ceqli. -- >PLEASE NOTE MY NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS: rmay@hidden.email > Rex F. May (Baloo) > Daily cartoon at: http://www.cnsnews.com/cartoon/baloo.asp > Buy my book at: http://www.kiva.net/~jonabook/gdummy.htm > Language site at: http://www.geocities.com/ceqli/Uploadexp.htm >Discuss my auxiliary language at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/txeqli/