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Re: [saweli] quote of the day - elaborated

In a message dated 6/6/2007 9:11:20 AM Central Daylight Time, sts@hidden.email writes:


Stevo, so if I understand it right, this is the word-level grammar:

word = cl + mod + (n + suffix) + ending + secondary ending


Exactly right.

(mod = semantic modifier)
(suffix = structural modifier)
(tag = pos-tag)
(quantor = secondary ending)


"Quantor"?  What's that?  


Why does the classifier precede the modifier? My personal preference
might have been to invert the order in this case, but I haven't thought
of it too much.


The classifiers are ordered according to the outline in Appendix C of "Lexical Semantics".  They must come first to preserve the order.

I
just thought, since both the modifier and the suffix modify the
classifier, the classifier should be right between them. Like

mod + cl + suffix + ending + secondary ending


Since the language is right-branching, all modifying words modify to the left.  I have taken this principle to its logical conclusion.  Thus modifier morphemes modify to their left, and each new modifying morpheme to the right modifies everything in its scope to the left.

I suggest not to say "primary" and "secondary" "ending". It's like
saying "preposition", only because it stands _before_ a noun.

classifier: classifier, concept
modifier: modifier, semantic modifier, conceptual modifier
suffix: structural modifier
primary ending: pos-tag, tag, pos, part-of-speech
secondary ending: quantor

I have used POS sometimes already, but what is "quantor"?


Stefo