Hey guys I'm new to this site but have been conlanging for quite a while since I joined CBB/Zompist a year ago.
Got a major question to ask here regarding genitives/adjective structures.
For example, 'the color of the red car'/'the red car's color' could be constructed in many ways -
Japanese style: aka-i kuruma-no iro [red-adj car-gen color] - Extremely consistent head-final order; adjectives goes before the noun.
Italian style: il colore del auto rosso [the color of-the car red] - Tail-final(?) order; adjectives go after the noun.
In my conlang, I'm trying to come up with a consistent rule that combines both above forms without trying to use 'of/de'. That is, adjectives go after the nouns while at the same time using a head-final order.
The closest ones I can come up with are -
1. incúedo-n roúg-u colore (car-poss red-adj color)
2. incúedo-n roúg-u color-ile (car-poss red-adj color-of)
3. incúedo-n color-ile roúg-u (car-poss color-of red-adj)
4. colore de incúedo roúg-u (color of car red-adj) ...this uses 'of/from', just in case. Guess that would be blatant plagiarizing for my conlang.
Another example (land of the holy people)
1. hominere-ú rever-i lanta (people-poss holy-adj land)
2. hominere-ú rever-i lant-ela (people-poss holy-adj land-of)
3. hominere-ú lant-ela rever-i (people-poss land-of holy-adj)
4. lanta d'hominere rever-i (land of people holy-adj)
It looks like the best way I can deal with this would be to use an enclosing clitic (~ile/~ela) for the final(?) noun to distinguish it from any adjectives. If you have a better alternative, any suggestions on how to deal with a situation like this, or know of a language that deals with syntax like this, that would be greatly appreciated.
Genitive/Adjective Syntax issues in conlang
Genitive/Adjective Syntax issues in conlang
"Why is it when you tell someone there are 4 billion stars , they believe it. But if you tell them that the paint is still wet, they have to touch it?"
Am I all that I am? Well, I am, that I am.
Am I all that I am? Well, I am, that I am.
Re: Genitive/Adjective Syntax issues in conlang
Verbs!
The car's color that reds.
The car's redding color.
The redding car's color.
etc.
The car's color that reds.
The car's redding color.
The redding car's color.
etc.
Re: Genitive/Adjective Syntax issues in conlang
Head-initial.aereastra wrote:Tail-final(?)
I see no problem with any of those, except that
seems either to mean "the red color of the car" and "the holy land of the people", or to have non-linear syntax. There's as far as I know no problem with non-linear syntax, except that I personally don't like it (and that it is difficult to make a non-linear syntax unambiguous).aereastra wrote:3. incúedo-n color-ile roúg-u (car-poss color-of red-adj)
3. hominere-ú lant-ela rever-i (people-poss land-of holy-adj)