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Rex May - Baloo wrote:
>
> Some of my reasoning for the noun vs non-noun thing is:
>
> Esperanto never got that clearly worked out, and it's a flaw. Martelo
> marteli martelado.
>
> Loglan avoids it, but ends up with every 'noun' being a verb with the not
> terribly useful meaning "is an X".
>
> We could do the Loglan thing in Ceqli, with some kind of ending, or set of
> endings, nounifying non-nouns. It could be a relatively small number of
> endings, but I have an aversion to it anyway.
>
> Or, we could always identify nouns with a t-word:
>
> Go pe. I am-a-person. Verbal meaning of 'pe'. Mike, an _extremely_ stative
> verb.
>
> To pe The person. Ta pe a person Ti pe. Something named 'pe'. Te
> pe Person, with undefined definiteness. Other, as yet undefined t-words
> would mean things like 'the typical', etc. as in Loglan
>
> This last way was how I was doing it sometime ago. What do you think?
In essence, you're making the copula unnecessary. This works perfectly
well for Arabic and Malay, though colloquial Arabic sometimes inserts
a personal pronoun, commonly <huwa> ("he"), just where you'd expect
the copula.
(By coincidence, I spent several hours this evening discussing Arabic
with a young man who hopes to go to college in Egypt next autumn.)
Are the following correct?
Cisa hon.
This (is a) book.
Gosa hon.
Mine (is a) book.
Cisa te hon.
This book.
Gosa te hon.
My book.
Does a preceding "sa" render the "t-" word unnecessary?
Gosa zopam kiq. vx. Gosa te zopam kiq.
My father (is a) king.
Gosa zopam to kiq.
My father (is) the king.
To kiq zopam.
The king (is a) father.
To kiqsa zopam kalipe.
The king's father (is an) ambassador.
To kiqsa kalipe zopam.
The king's ambassador/ambassadors (is a/are) father/fathers.
To kalipe kiqsa zopam.
The ambassador (is a) king's father.
To kalipe to kiqsa zopam.
The ambassador (is) the king's father.
--
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