[YG Conlang Archives] > [ceqli group] > messages [Date Index] [Thread Index] >
on 3/8/02 2:51 PM, Mike Wright at darwin@hidden.email wrote:
> Rex May - Baloo wrote:
>>
>> I call for everybody's opinion. In the correlatives, for the
>> nothing, nobody, nowhere series, should the prefix be bu, zoy, kayn, or does
>> someone have a better idea?
>
> It's an interesting question. Neither Japanese nor Mandarin have such
> words. Both either use indefinites (some...) and negate the verb, or
> use a pattern like, "There are not {noun} that {verb}." Sort of like
> "Buten pe hu bupyar pam." or "Buten bupyar pam sa pe."
I wouldn't be surprised if that usage tended to be more common than the
'zoype' idea, but I want Ceqli to be capable of both. Come to think of it,
English is capable of both, tho it would only say 'Buten pe hu bupyar pam'
in classes in logic. So Mandarin seems to be more logic-inclined, in these
cases at least, than English.
>
> This seems to be part of the internal logic of these languages,
> wherein that which does not exist cannot be the subject of a verb.
> (There's something vaguely similar in Mandarin not negating the verb
> "xiang3", when it means "to think", unless there is literally no
> thinking going on.)
So how does it deal with
"I don't think it's raining."
(Actually, this whole Ceqli project is just a clever plan to get Mike to
teach me Mandarin for free)
--
>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/