A new participle infix: ‹awn›

Started by wm.annis, March 12, 2010, 06:41:28 PM

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tsrräfkxätu

Quote from: wm.annis on April 29, 2010, 05:10:07 PM
But there may be more idiomatic solutions we'll have to wait on Frommer for.

Or simply ask for free. :D
párolt zöldség — muntxa fkxen  

Kì'eyawn

Quote from: tsrräfkxätu on April 29, 2010, 04:43:53 PM
How would y'all say everything is permitted?

I came up with frakem lu tawnunga kem, but maybe there's a more elegant solution.

Oel ngati kame, ma Altayir.
eo Eywa oe 'ia

Fra'uri tìyawnur oe täpivìng nìwotx...

Hawnuyu atxen

It would be so much easier if we could say (as i know it is incorrect/forbidden):
Ke'u lu ngay, frakem lu tawnung.

QuoteOel ngati kame, ma Altayir.

With the PE he might learn some na'vi too ::) ;)
"Hrrap rä'ä si olo'ur smuktuä." ; "Ke'u ke lu ngay. Frakemit tung." (Assassin's Creed)

Nikre tsa'usìn!

Prrton

#43
Quote from: Hawnuyu atxen on April 30, 2010, 05:39:33 AM
It would be so much easier if we could say (as i know it is incorrect/forbidden):
Ke'u lu ngay, frakem lu tawnung.

Ke'u lu ngay, frakemit tung.

There is a silent «fkol» in there that makes this the closest thing Na'vi has to "passive". It's not very IndoEuropean, but quite elegant in its simplicity.

The pattern is:

Promote the accusative noun to the head (most prominent area) of the sentence or clause and leave out the ergative "agent" if he/she/it is not needed. If completely "missing" the agent is assumed to be «fkol».

 [Nothing is true, (one) allows every action.]

PS: I think of it as "Yoda passive".


omängum fra'uti

The thing is the agent is rarely "completely" missing...  It could be misunderstood as coming from context, so unless the context is already "fkol" as the agent, it should probably be said I'd imagine.
Ftxey lu nga tokx ftxey lu nga tirea? Lu oe tìkeftxo.
Listen to my Na'vi Lessons podcast!

Prrton

Quote from: omängum fra'uti on April 30, 2010, 03:01:18 PM
The thing is the agent is rarely "completely" missing...  It could be misunderstood as coming from context, so unless the context is already "fkol" as the agent, it should probably be said I'd imagine.

It only "hurts" to say it if it messes up flow or rhythm of the sentence.

I find it rather easy to "leave things out" in Na'vi that we couldn't do without in English because that's very common in Japanese. Once the topics and/or agents are understood from the context, it's much more NATURAL to leave them out.

However, in this particular case it does make sense to stick «fkol» in because (lacking context) that «tung» comes across as a strong candidate for an imperative.

Kemaweyan

Quote from: Prrton on April 30, 2010, 02:51:18 PM
Ke'u lu ngay, frakemit tung.

Ke'u ke lu ngay... Oeru tìyawr, kefyak?
Nìrangal frapo tsirvun pivlltxe nìNa'vi :D

tsrräfkxätu

Oh, this is excellent, ma Prrton! Exactly the kind of elegant solution I was looking for. :D I know that wm.annis offered a very similar phrase, but I are a blonde, and keep forgetting about the possibility of elision, despite the fact that in Hungarian that's often the only correct way.

However, I agree with Kemaweyan in that it would be even better with the double negative.
Quote from: Kemaweyan on April 30, 2010, 03:16:55 PM
Ke'u ke lu ngay...


Still, this wouldn't be my post if I didn't make an eagle-eyed (and potentially incorrect) observation regarding this:
Quote from: Prrton on April 30, 2010, 02:51:18 PM
[...] Promote the accusative noun to the head (most prominent area) of the sentence [...]

Here's what Pawl said about this earlier.
Quote from: PF in LN Wiki – CanonThe only revision I made was to change the word order to place more emphasis on the "mine":

Ngeyä kxetse lu oeru.

(The end of the sentence is where the "punch" comes.)

From this I understand that the most prominent area is the end of the sentence.
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omängum fra'uti

That's to really give that an extra *punch*.  Like in English if you said a word with extra emphasis.  What prrton is referring to is just shifting the main focus, which also per frommer tends to come from the first position.

Tsakemit fkol tung - That is allowed
Tung fkol tsakemit - *THAT* is allowed
Ftxey lu nga tokx ftxey lu nga tirea? Lu oe tìkeftxo.
Listen to my Na'vi Lessons podcast!

Prrton

#49
I agree with tsmukan Omängum Fra'uti. By putting (most prominent area) in parentheses, I didn't mean that that is always the head. I should have written (or the 'most prominent area') because in Altaic word order, sometime that doesn't come first. In Eri's 'tail' advert campaign, I see why K. Pawl felt that the 'end' was best for the *punch*, but as a general rule, he tends to put things that are more important in earlier on. I've almost never seen a TOPIC(ìri) come late in the game, for example.

And, K.P. specifically said (to me. Sorry I don't have it in writing) about this construct that the "thing possessed" should be PROMOTED (typically to the front of the action). In the practice of writing (on average), I think that would more likely be earlier on. In conversation (more like what an ad slogan would be too), that position of promotion could be elsewhere.

The point is to HIGHLIGHT the noun in the accusative (-t, -ti, -it) wherever you the speaker think that is.

      Flewit peyä näk reypayìt a vrrtepìl frarmìp.

~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, and the double negative is good ("very good only").  ;)  BUT, it's not required, either, according to my understanding.

omängum fra'uti

what makes you say its not required?  in situations that call for it, the impression that I got is that grammatically it is required.  However its ambiguous if it would be used with the copula.
Ftxey lu nga tokx ftxey lu nga tirea? Lu oe tìkeftxo.
Listen to my Na'vi Lessons podcast!

tsrräfkxätu

I wanted to ask the same thing. :D It would seem to me that the logic of negation is a very fundamental piece of a language's grammar, and if double negatives are allowed then they are, in fact, also required. Then again, passive in Na'vi isn't absolute either, and the whole language is very permissive, so whatever...
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wm.annis

Quote from: tsrräfkxätu on May 01, 2010, 03:47:40 PM
I wanted to ask the same thing. :D It would seem to me that the logic of negation is a very fundamental piece of a language's grammar, and if double negatives are allowed then they are, in fact, also required.

Plenty of natural languages allow double negation but don't require it, for example, ancient Greek.

omängum fra'uti

It wouldn't surprise me to see Na'vi fall into that category as well...  But did you get the impression from the wording that Paul used that the double negative was required, or just that he was recommending it in that situation?
Ftxey lu nga tokx ftxey lu nga tirea? Lu oe tìkeftxo.
Listen to my Na'vi Lessons podcast!

Prrton

Quote from: omängum fra'uti on May 01, 2010, 04:46:44 PM
It wouldn't surprise me to see Na'vi fall into that category as well...  But did you get the impression from the wording that Paul used that the double negative was required, or just that he was recommending it in that situation?

Perhaps I had lost the sense of the original meaning that was being sought. I was focused on the passive aspect, more than the negation of the first half when I first commented on this.

   Ke'u lu ngay, frakemit tung.

Is «Ke'u lu ngay» supposed to be "nothing is real" or "nothing is true"?

That seems perfectly valid to me.

   But, «Ke lu ke'u a ngay (lu)» might be my preferred translation for that.

Spanish allows double negation but does not require it.

  - Hay nada que puedes decir... There's nothing that you can say...
  - No hay nada que puedes decir... There's NOTHING that you can say...
  - No hay nada que nadie puede decir... There's NOTHING that ANYONE can say...

English also allows double (and triple) negatives. They just don't happen to be blessed by the establishment.

  - I ain't got n'more time to waste on nobody the likes o' you.
  - I don't have any more time to waste with anyone of your ilk.

The speaker is "fed up" with the behavior of the listener and is precluding the possibility of future intercourse.

The core *meaning* is the same in both sentences. The register is quite different but completely mutually intelligible (at least in one direction). The "ain't" register speaker might struggle a bit with the "fancy talk" à la "ilk."

I've gotten the sense from K. Pawl that double (and triple) negation in Na'vi is allowed (and in many cases preferred), but not required semantically in all cases. I've been using it to STRENGTHEN negativity, but sometimes the most subtle, quiet message is the most powerful.

Maybe my Spanish accent is stronger than I think.

     ;)

Tawtakuk

I think we really need a clarification from Karyu Pawl here.

I myself don't recall any canonical sentence calling for a double negative but not having it. That leads me to the opinion that Na'vi negative concord indeed is grammatically required, as is the case with Slavic languages. By that logic, a statement like "Ke'u lu ngay" would be nonsensical as it would say something along the lines of "There IS some thing that is true and that thing is the/a no-thing", instead of the English "Nothing is true" you native speakers tend to see there ;)

However, judging by the general level of flexibility in Na'vi (word order, subordination, pro-drop, tense/aspect drop), I agree with wm.annis and omängum fra'uti that the recommended-but-not-required approach would actually fit the language better.
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Prrton

#56
Quote from: Tawtakuk on May 02, 2010, 02:50:27 PM
I think we really need a clarification from Karyu Pawl here.

I myself don't recall any canonical sentence calling for a double negative but not having it. That leads me to the opinion that Na'vi negative concord indeed is grammatically required, as is the case with Slavic languages. By that logic, a statement like "Ke'u lu ngay" would be nonsensical as it would say something along the lines of "There IS some thing that is true and that thing is the/a no-thing", instead of the English "Nothing is true" you native speakers tend to see there ;)

However, judging by the general level of flexibility in Na'vi (word order, subordination, pro-drop, tense/aspect drop), I agree with wm.annis and omängum fra'uti that the recommended-but-not-required approach would actually fit the language better.

I've asked. Will post reply here or separately in this area when/if it arrives.

By "calling for" do you mean "where one would expect based on one's understanding of the rules"? If they (double negatives) are optional (truly optional) then they are never technically "called for" based on my understanding of "called for."

And I'm not exactly sure what «ke'u» means either. It could be as much of a philosophical question as a grammatical one.

 Kea 'u lu ngay.
 Lu ngay 'u ake.
 Ke lu kea 'u a ngay lu.
 Ngay a 'u lu ke'u.


Oel fpìl futa fìtìpawmìri ral a lu txeleuo ke lu horenteri lì'fyaoyä nì'aw.  ;)


Prrton

Quote from: Prrton on May 02, 2010, 04:55:13 PM
Quote from: Tawtakuk on May 02, 2010, 02:50:27 PM
I think we really need a clarification from Karyu Pawl here.

I myself don't recall any canonical sentence calling for a double negative but not having it. That leads me to the opinion that Na'vi negative concord indeed is grammatically required, as is the case with Slavic languages. By that logic, a statement like "Ke'u lu ngay" would be nonsensical as it would say something along the lines of "There IS some thing that is true and that thing is the/a no-thing", instead of the English "Nothing is true" you native speakers tend to see there ;)

However, judging by the general level of flexibility in Na'vi (word order, subordination, pro-drop, tense/aspect drop), I agree with wm.annis and omängum fra'uti that the recommended-but-not-required approach would actually fit the language better.

I've asked. Will post reply here or separately in this area when/if it arrives.


Tì'eyng poläheiem ulte tsakoren lu law nìwotx.

Tawtakuk

... and the off-topic is resolved :) Thanks for asking that question, and I am truly amazed how quickly we got the response.
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