Alternatives to Number, Time, Mood, etc?
Alternatives to Number, Time, Mood, etc?
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?
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Re: Alternatives to Number, Time, Mood, etc?
This is called evidentiality.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?
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Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 87,413 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 87,413 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
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Re: Alternatives to Number, Time, Mood, etc?
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
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”.
Re: Alternatives to Number, Time, Mood, etc?
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.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?
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".