Search found 23 matches

by Oil In My Lamp
22 Sep 2020 20:50
Forum: Everything Else
Topic: (EE) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Replies: 751
Views: 455528

Re: (EE) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

I think politically-motivated sound changes would be dependent on the sounds of the neighbouring (or otherwise culturally-significant) nations. Conquered or lower caste nations would use more of the language of the ruling class.

Is that what you had in mind?
by Oil In My Lamp
14 Aug 2020 18:22
Forum: Everything Else
Topic: (EE) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here
Replies: 751
Views: 455528

Re: (EE) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Good morning everyone, does anyone know if the Conlangio app/project is still up somewhere? The website seems to be down. There do not seem to be many mobile app options for conlanging.
by Oil In My Lamp
31 Mar 2020 16:26
Forum: Teach & Share
Topic: Lesson/Guide Requests
Replies: 322
Views: 344123

Re: Lesson/Guide Requests

Does anyone have or want to give lessons for Tagalog? I would like to get to understand the grammar.
by Oil In My Lamp
31 Mar 2020 00:25
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Unknown term for Ergative Languages
Replies: 23
Views: 5513

Re: Unknown term for Ergative Languages

Thank you all for your answers. I have begun to think that I simply over complicated things in my mind. I think it would be better to simply think of ergative-absolutive being different only in alignment (I know that has already been said, but maybe now I understand it better), and many of the ambig...
by Oil In My Lamp
28 Mar 2020 16:01
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Unknown term for Ergative Languages
Replies: 23
Views: 5513

Re: Unknown term for Ergative Languages

Close, but not quite. If the verb is genuinely intransitive - rather than merely univalent - then it cannot have a patient. In true 'ergative-absolutive' languages, the subject of an intransitive is always treated the same way, regardless of its semantics. So, does that mean "I ate" is un...
by Oil In My Lamp
28 Mar 2020 00:05
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Unknown term for Ergative Languages
Replies: 23
Views: 5513

Re: Unknown term for Ergative Languages

Here is another example. Perhaps it makes more sense: The tree was felled. The tree fell. Would they both be written like below: fell tree-DEF fell tree-DEF I have a hard time understanding ergative grammar. The answer is... they could be. And here's an important question to ask whenever a conlange...
by Oil In My Lamp
28 Mar 2020 00:04
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Unknown term for Ergative Languages
Replies: 23
Views: 5513

Re: Unknown term for Ergative Languages

So, if I make use of split ergativity, a sentence like "I instructed" could be made Nom-Acc and "I was instructed." could be Erg-Abs? Would this work? So far, it appears that you're not interested in working out reliable ways to disambiguate the roles of nouns in one-argument se...
by Oil In My Lamp
27 Mar 2020 02:10
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Unknown term for Ergative Languages
Replies: 23
Views: 5513

Re: Unknown term for Ergative Languages

Reyzadren wrote: 27 Mar 2020 01:19 ^Not really. One can passivate an intransitive verb in triggerlangs because passivisation does not decrease valency there. (For example, my conlang has passive intransitive verbs.)
Hi Reyzadren,
What is a triggerlang?
by Oil In My Lamp
27 Mar 2020 01:39
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Unknown term for Ergative Languages
Replies: 23
Views: 5513

Re: Unknown term for Ergative Languages

So, if I make use of split ergativity, a sentence like "I instructed" could be made Nom-Acc and "I was instructed." could be Erg-Abs?

Would this work?
by Oil In My Lamp
27 Mar 2020 00:54
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Unknown term for Ergative Languages
Replies: 23
Views: 5513

Re: Unknown term for Ergative Languages

I suppose it's alright, as long as you remember that you only do that when you have one argument and the verb is transitive. You wouldn't do that for "the bears danced" if "dance" is supposed to be intransitive. I have an honest question. Why would I not use passivity for intran...
by Oil In My Lamp
26 Mar 2020 22:24
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Unknown term for Ergative Languages
Replies: 23
Views: 5513

Re: Unknown term for Ergative Languages

Here is another example. Perhaps it makes more sense: The tree was felled. The tree fell. Would they both be written like below: fell tree-DEF fell tree-DEF I have a hard time understanding ergative grammar. As @salmoneus said, how do I know the difference between certain transitive and intransitive...
by Oil In My Lamp
26 Mar 2020 16:41
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Unknown term for Ergative Languages
Replies: 23
Views: 5513

Unknown term for Ergative Languages

Good morning everybody. I have a couple questions about ergative languages. I would like to know how a person who speaks an ergative-absolutive language knows or marks the difference between "The bears danced." and "The bears were danced.", or "The walls painted." and &...
by Oil In My Lamp
28 Jul 2019 10:07
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Different Way of Doing Adpositions - help request
Replies: 24
Views: 11652

Re: Different Way of Doing Adpositions - help request

Omzinesý wrote: 28 Jul 2019 02:28 It isn't needed, and often it isn't used, but redundant elements often appear.
Ah, I see.
by Oil In My Lamp
28 Jul 2019 01:01
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Different Way of Doing Adpositions - help request
Replies: 24
Views: 11652

Re: Different Way of Doing Adpositions - help request

Finnish (1) Menin talo-on sisään. I.went house-ILL in(to) (2) Menin talo-n sisään. I.went house.GEN in(to) Both mean 'I went into the house.' (1) has an adverb "sisään" that kind of codes the same info as the illative form of the noun. (2) has a postposition "sisään" that govern...
by Oil In My Lamp
28 Jul 2019 00:14
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Different Way of Doing Adpositions - help request
Replies: 24
Views: 11652

Re: Different Way of Doing Adpositions - help request

https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/217030/Wambaya-fest-rev.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y says Wambaya has free word-order and serial-verb constructions and allows discontinuous constituents. It might be an inspiration for ways to achieve what you desire. This looks great!...
by Oil In My Lamp
22 Jul 2019 17:39
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Different Way of Doing Adpositions - help request
Replies: 24
Views: 11652

Re: Different Way of Doing Adpositions - help request

For "inside- GEN-house -STV", how would one write in gloss that 'house' is genitive without implying a marker is there? I don't understand this question. That is okay, do not worry about it then. I have more studying to do, obviously. Thanks anyway [:)] . (By the way, I did not know that ...
by Oil In My Lamp
21 Jul 2019 05:05
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Referring to a subject only once
Replies: 6
Views: 3627

Re: Referring to a subject only once

Die Wolfsmutter sichsammelte die Jungen. Die Wolf-s-mutter sich-sammel-t-e die Junge-n. DEF.F wolf-CMPND-mother REFL-rally-PST-1SG DEF.PL cub-ACC.PL Mother wolf rallied her cubs. @Creyeditor, that is cool, I do have a reflexive, so this might work really well. Sorry for all the German. I do not spe...
by Oil In My Lamp
20 Jul 2019 20:20
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Different Way of Doing Adpositions - help request
Replies: 24
Views: 11652

Re: Different Way of Doing Adpositions - help request

Good morning @Ser, thank you for your detailed and easy-to-understand explanation! I actually had been using Mandarin a lot for the features I wanted to incorporate (or at least I would refer to Mandarin to solve problems, haha). But, like you said, I would need to allow serial objects along with my...
by Oil In My Lamp
20 Jul 2019 20:16
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Referring to a subject only once
Replies: 6
Views: 3627

Referring to a subject only once

Good afternoon! I am not sure if this is the place to ask, but I guess it counts as a stupid question, so here goes. I have a story with father and mother wolves and their cubs. I got to a point where the mother was rallying her cubs. "Mother wolf rallied her cubs." I am wondering if there...
by Oil In My Lamp
19 Jul 2019 06:36
Forum: Beginners' Corner
Topic: Different Way of Doing Adpositions - help request
Replies: 24
Views: 11652

Re: Different Way of Doing Adpositions - help request

@eldin raigmore, yes that does sound interesting. I had not considered having different kinds of objects, with the exception that I do have an indirect object showing the secondary recipient of some action or recipient of some object (although I would prefer that it not imply a literal recipient, as...