Xing wrote:I'd like to see more detailed descriptions of which derivational processes there are in the language. How do you:
-Form nouns out of verbs?
-Form noun out of adjectives?
-Form adjectives out of nouns?
-Form adjectives out of verbs?
-Form verbs out of nouns?
-Form verbs out of adjectives?
The crucial point is that – for instance – each noun can give rise to a wide range of verbal derivations. For a given noun [N], we could theoretically form verbs with meanings like:
-[...]
Not all of the above examples (you could surely come up with more of them) need to have dedicated morphemes, but you need to have thought of how to express those various meanings.
Ok, so first of all:
-Form nouns out of verbs?
same root, different endings. For instance, from root "cit" (eat, food), you have "citu" (food) or "cites" (eat), etc.
-Form noun out of adjectives? s
ame, you take the root and change the endings. For instance, from "more" (death), you take the root "mor"; add -i for an adjective: "mori" (dead).
-Form adjectives out of nouns?
Same thing, it is a matter of going back to the root (always 3 letter), and add the correct morpheme.
-Form adjectives out of verbs?
Same
-Form verbs out of nouns?
Same
-Form verbs out of adjectives?
Same
For the rest, to be honest with you I do not think such distinctions are going to a problem in Atlas, as most of them are already covered or can be easily distinguished by context. However, if you gave examples of those situations I might change my opinion! (it is very theoretical and I cannot think of examples now where there would be confussion).
Apart from Atlas noun categories, there is the possibility to complete the meaning of an adjective or noun by adding an extra root. This is especially important in adjectives, as all of them end in "-i" and there is no perfect form. So for instance "mori" (die) would be both "dead" and "dying" (as an adjective).
So: "al-itsa mori" could be the "dead person" or the "dying person".
Now context could help, but if not, Atlas could add an extra root in order to specify the meaning. For instance adding "-cal", gives the sense of "Process", or adding "rex", gives the meaning of "state". So you could have:
Al-itsa morrexi- The dead person (state)
Al-itsa morcali - The dying person (process)
So this confussion would only happen in a few cases like this one, but as you can see there are mechanisms in order to avoid it.
As for the rest of examples as I said, I cannot see big confussions arising, but some examples or hints maybe would prove me wrong!
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Interesting post btw thanks