Alternatives to Number, Time, Mood, etc?

If you're new to these arts, this is the place to ask "stupid" questions and get directions!
Post Reply
User avatar
Isfendil
greek
greek
Posts: 668
Joined: 19 Feb 2016 03:47

Alternatives to Number, Time, Mood, etc?

Post by Isfendil »

I am making an inflected language and what I essentially want is to inflect for more or alternative things to Gender, Number, Mood, Time, or Completion, because I'm kinda sick of that. I've heard that some languages must represent the veracity of statements (Whether you firsthand know what you're stating, whether its a question, whether you heard it from someone else, or whether it is an established truth) which is something that I'm interested in, but what else could their be? What are some essential things (like veracity, pretty cool, right?) that languages can be mandated to represent, other than time, mood, or things of that nature?
Khemehekis
mongolian
mongolian
Posts: 3885
Joined: 14 Aug 2010 09:36
Location: California über alles

Re: Alternatives to Number, Time, Mood, etc?

Post by Khemehekis »

Isfendil wrote:I've heard that some languages must represent the veracity of statements (Whether you firsthand know what you're stating, whether its a question, whether you heard it from someone else, or whether it is an established truth) which is something that I'm interested in, but what else could their be?
This is called evidentiality.
♂♥♂♀

Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels

My Kankonian-English dictionary: 87,413 words and counting

31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
User avatar
k1234567890y
mayan
mayan
Posts: 2400
Joined: 04 Jan 2014 04:47
Contact:

Re: Alternatives to Number, Time, Mood, etc?

Post by k1234567890y »

you can consider the following thing for your conlanf(s):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Converb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluractionality

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applicative_voice

also, when I was learning Manchu, it has suffixes for expressions like "to come to do...", "to go to do...", etc. you can go to the "Verbs" section of the following page for a more comprehensive list:

https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Manchu/ ... ar_Summary
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.
User avatar
elemtilas
runic
runic
Posts: 3021
Joined: 22 Nov 2014 04:48

Re: Alternatives to Number, Time, Mood, etc?

Post by elemtilas »

Isfendil wrote:I am making an inflected language and what I essentially want is to inflect for more or alternative things to Gender, Number, Mood, Time, or Completion, because I'm kinda sick of that. I've heard that some languages must represent the veracity of statements (Whether you firsthand know what you're stating, whether its a question, whether you heard it from someone else, or whether it is an established truth) which is something that I'm interested in, but what else could their be? What are some essential things (like veracity, pretty cool, right?) that languages can be mandated to represent, other than time, mood, or things of that nature?
Pretty much anything you'd like. Some things you còuld inflect for will be "less naturalistic" than others, but this may or may not be a strong design criterion.

I have a sketch somewhere of an invented language that, if I recall correctly, has an inflectional category for whether a person is sitting on a chair, a stool or the floor.

This particular category, as well as other parallel categories, are bound up with other systems of relative animacy, social hierarchy and volitionality. All of those things and many more are categories your language could inflect for.

You can also choose to "inflect in the other direction". So, in stead of changing the ending of a noun or verb to inflect for gender or laterality, you could simply change the root of the word. For example, in Queranaran, I could say and-ateh roanclathyes which means "I just hurt my left eye; or I could say and-ateh tuanclathyes which means "I just hurt my right eye". Inflection for laterality is pervasive in the language, there being two distinct sets of demonstrative pronouns, left and right, and all the obvious symmetrical body parts have similar left/right distinction.

In that same language, there are also many words that "inflect" for gender by varying the root, rather than the ending: marsarnuwandrollelandrahein, literally means "to dance gracefully among earth & stone", but actually means "walk in the way a girl walks"; while sarnuwyandrondalcarhrteit literally means "to caress earth & stone with the toes", but actually means "walk in the way a boy walks".
Post Reply