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BestATN@hidden.email wrote:
>
> Why are phrases like tumbe-vesyantay hyphenated?
>
Just my own personal preference.
>
> What are the rules for using commas? Is punctuation ever required?
>
Punctuation is never required. In fact, the parser strips off all
punctuation and whitespace, and converts everything to lower case before
it begins parsing.
I wrote:
>
> Perhaps someone would like to try this one:
>
> I moved the table.
>
and BestATN@hidden.email replied:
>
> Dimpa mi vozwe nane pyudimpa kivakxe ne casi tumi jasinta kivakxe
>
First of all, "pyu-" is intended to allow two or more different verbs to
apply consecutively using same argument list, as in "I moved and washed
the table". You're using it as some kind of fill-in-the blank shortcut
without any consideration for its semantics. Thus, the first half
should be:
Dimpa mi vozwe nane dimpa mi vohi kivakxe?
= I moved the table but why did I move it?
Next, the second "kivakxe" is an oblique argument of "jasinta" which I'm
sure is not what you intended. It should be placed somewhere between
"casi" and "jasinta" so that it will be an argument of "casi":
Dimpa mi vozwe nane dimpa mi vohi kivakxe ne casi tumi kivakxe
jasinta?
= I moved the table but why did I move it and why did you want to
think?
As you can see, use of anti-middle "sinta" versus simply "si" plus an
anaphor is ambiguous. You're better off using an anaphor:
Dimpa mi vozwe nane dimpa mi vohi kivakxe ne casi tumi kivakxe jasi
diha.
= I moved the table but why did I move it and why did you want to
think about it?
Is that what you intended to say?
When doing this sort of thing, it's a good idea to provide an English
equivalent. It also saves me time since I won't have to try to read
your mind.
>
> Bagonta byo nimu xeku xeva di to te gekospu = There are much more than
> three people in the computer room.
>
> "Many" would sound a lot better than "much" in this sentence.
>
To me, "much" sounds slightly more natural. Does anyone else have an
opinion?
>
> K-E has
> twedapsi - discussion, conversation, dialogue, talk, chat. Tenda
> Kajobyo ne mi twedapsi cansa xeva fotumbe = John and I had very
> good discussion a little while ago.
>
> The English sounds odd without the indefinite article, i.e., "a very good
> discussion".
>
You're right. Not only that, but "twedapsi" is generic by default so
both "lo-" (mass-to-count prefix) and "va" are required.
Regards,
Rick Morneau
http://www.srv.net/~ram
http://www.eskimo.com/~ram