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Rex May - Baloo wrote: > > on 3/29/02 3:13 PM, Mike Wright at darwin@hidden.email wrote: > > > Rex May - Baloo wrote: > >> > >> We need good morphemes for more, most, less, and least. In single > >> syllables. > >> > >> How about pli, zwey for the first two? > > > > I'm not sure we need morphemes for the latter two. Isn't the "least > > good" the "most bad"? > > Ye-es, but not all such things are scalar, if that's what I mean. To zwey > kala means the most black, and there isn't really a pokala, But there's "bu kala" for that kind of thing. For "least black", in Mandarin we'd probably say something like <zui4 mei2you3 hei1se4 de ...> "most not-have black-color GEN ...". (Using GEN for the genitive particle.) Although, we could theoretically say <zui4 bu4hei1 de> "most NEG-black GEN". For "less black", it would be something like <mei2you3 na4me hei1> "not-have to-that-extent black". > so there we'd > want less and least. and I think they'd be handy in compounds, tho none > other than your majority and minority spring to mind right away. Esperanto > uses the opposite prefix on 'more' to make it 'less,' and it always seemed > unwieldy to me. I have no strong objection to less and least. The closest thing I've found for "less" is "kuraq", from Malay <kurang>, which has a base meaning of "lacking". We also need patterns for "XX is as SV as YY" and "XX is more/less SV than YY". (Using SV for stative verb/adjective.) Actually, I think that "XX is less SV than YY" is the same as "XX is not as SV as YY". 1) His nose is as red as my nose. 2) His nose is redder than my nose. 3) His nose is not as red as my nose. 4) His nose is less red than my nose. 3) and 4) have the same meaning. Mandarin has: 1) His nose with my nose same red. 2) His nose compare my nose red. 3) His nose not-have my nose same red. No structural equivalent for 4). If we negate 1), it's just "not the same as", with no implication of either more or less--just different. Japanese and Malay both use post-/prepositions meaning "with" for 1), and "from" for 2). I don't even want to try to explain the Japanese for 3), and don't know it for Malay. (Japanese uses postpositions, and Malay had head-modifier word order, so we wouldn't want to copy the syntax of either one.) It's interesting that languages as different as Mandarin, Japanese, and Malay all use equivalent constructs for 1): "with-XX same SV", "XX-with same SV", and "same SV with-XX". Doesn't Spanish use the preposition "que" similarly in such constructs? I think it's justifiable to analyze the Mandarin as a typical modifier-head construct, in which "with-XX same" is and adverbial phrase modifying the stative verb, exactly the way other adverbs, like "very" do. Arabic, English, and at least (zwey fyu) some Romance languages seem to equate the superlative with definiteness (blacker, the blackest; aswad, al-aswad; menos, os menos), but that doesn't seem to fit Ceqli, with its non-obligatory definiteness. > > What does "pli" come from? And wouldn't "plu" be appropriate? > > "Pli" is from Esperanto, but you're right, we already have 'plu.' -- Mike Wright http://www.CoastalFog.net ____________________________________________________________ "The difference between theory and practice is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice, however, there is." -- Anonymous