Re: A Language built around a novel grammar

Hi!

Lars Finsen <lars.finsen@...> writes:
> Den 22. nov. 2006 kl. 12.20 skrev Henrik Theiling:
> >
> > Please see my other post for examples -- I do understand that you can
> > use your operators on clause level, but my question is how you mark,
> > e.g., that the operator does not work on the next word, but on the
> > next clause.
>
> Pardon me for replying instead of Jonathan, but I am a little
> intrigued by this idea. Isn't parentheses the obvious choice?
>...
Hmhm, and I use parentheses in S11 (the aforementioned clause
termination particles), but of course, those are additional operators.

> In your
> sentence:
>
> >   - I read the book that John gave to Mary.
>
> You could have them around (book that John gave to Mary), for
> example, making it a full clause with 'book' marked as the object of
> the main sentence, or around (John gave to Mary), with 'gave' marked
> as subjunctive. Since language is so logical, it strikes me as a fun
> idea to use mathematical symbols to mark its relations. Like this for
> example:
>
> I read+ (John give\+ book[< Mary])[, or
> I read+ book[ (John give\+< Mary])
With the operators of S11, it'd essentially be:

  (read-I (transfer-book give-John receive-Mary)).

Symbols:

   ()     - clause termination
   -      - verb-noun compounding
   space  - serial verb construction

The reference in the relative clause is marked by the fact that 'book'
is the first 'noun' in the sub-clause.

S11's precise structure: the inner ) would be shown by a relative
clause particle here, the outer ) would not be explicitly marked by
morphemes, and the ( by the evidence/mood particles.  (And in fact,
the ( in infixed, not prefixed, but that is a minor detail...)  So:

   read-MOOD-I transfer-MOOD-book give-John receive-Mary-REL.

> With + marking active, \ marking past, [ marking object, < marking
> back-reference, and ] marking dative.
All those are not part of S11's structure:

  <        would be marked by initial position in the sub-clause,
  [ and ]  are not marked in S11, there are only intransitive 'verbs',
  \        would be marked by content words (e.g. by a compound
           time-previous), and is optional anyway.

> Coming to think of it, if we mark nominatives too, for example with
> ^, we don't need spaces at all, so: I^read+book[(John^give\+<Mary])
Also not marked, since 'verbs' have only one argument anyway.

> >   - Mary likes reading books.
>
> Mary^like+(read+book*[)[
like-MOOD-Mary read-MOOD-book-NOM.

NOM is another closing parenthesis, marking that the preceding clause
is taken to be a unit (instead of the sub-clause
describing/restricting one of its participants as in a relative
clause).

S11 is not elaborated, so I only give a few ideas here of its
structure.  Many details are open.  E.g. the lexicon. :-)

**Henrik