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on 4/5/02 12:24 PM, kevinbsmith at yahoogroups@hidden.email wrote: > --- In txeqli@y..., Rex May - Baloo <rmay@m...> wrote: >> Actually, -I- don't want to do this. I think the thing >> about Ceqli is that some words are nouns and some are >> adjective/verb/prepositions. There is no non-noun meaning >> for kan, pe, xo, zo, xi, cer, cam, etc. Likewise, non-nouns >> can only become nouns by being converted somehow. Bon can't >> be a noun, but it can become bonka, goodness, bonpe, >> goodperson, bonxo another kind of goodness, bonvo, etc. >> In this, Ceqli is more like Mandarin, except that we flat >> out -can't- do things like 'man the torpedoes'. A noun can >> become a verb by some sort of ending, maybe, but it can't be >> a verb without that. > > I think that is a workable approach. The biggest drawbacks I > see are: > 1) Every word must be assigned an unambiguous part of speech, and > 2) Cegli users must memorize the part of speech for every word. > (unless it were indicated by morphology, which I don't think is > your intention). > > I would have to know that pomo is "to assist", and not > "assistance", and that varm is "warmth" and not "to warm". Yes. Now, is it possible to say that everything that can possibly be a non-noun is? No, that isn't what I mean. What I mean is, can we say that things that have a clear physical solid existence, like dog and rock and tree and table are nouns, and other things are not? I mean, help is pretty obviously an action, so its base meaning wd be verbal/adjectival. Oh, how about this. In pattern (subject X), X is a non-noun. In pattern (subject bi X), X is a noun. Other nouns are derived from non-nouns. Pomo help. Pomoka. An act or event of helping. Pomoxo a physical instance of helping. Pomovo. One who helps. Pomope. A helpful person. Kom eat. Komka. A meal (act of eating) Komxo food, komvo, etc. I'm trying to get this to be like Mandarin, difference being that a noun can't just be used as a verb. Okay. I mean you can't use pe as a verb and pe is in fact a noun _because_ it has no obvious verbal meaning, and if you did use it as a verb, it would have to be defined again. Can we say that all nouns are tangible, except for those derived from verbs with certain endings? -- >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/