Difference between revisions of "L E P/Miscellaneous function words"

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|ex1=How long did they stay?
 
|ex1=How long did they stay?
 
|ex2=How cold did it get while you were up north?
 
|ex2=How cold did it get while you were up north?
|comment='''Pefya''' presumably only means "how" in the sense of manner.
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|comments='''Pefya''' presumably only means "how" in the sense of manner.
 
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Revision as of 02:21, 2 April 2010

Lexical Expansion Project

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self, one's own (A)

"He ate his (someone else's) yerik" vs. "He ate his (own) yerik."
[1] Models are European reflexive pronouns and African logophoric pronouns; looser association w Algonquian "4th person". Perhaps self-GEN vs. lapeyä ?

informative particle (*fay') (B)

"Hey, this is *fay' good!" (informing another that they should try it, vs. eliciting agreement when both are already eating it, which would perhaps be "ko")
"There is *fay' still yerik flesh in the storage!" (informing the guy, who seems to think that he already has to hunt another yerik)
like Bavarian "fei" = /fay/ or Japanese "yo". These particles are used in the sense of "it seems to me that you don't know about it, but I think you really should - so I tell you that..." [2] In Japanese the "yo" is a sentence ending particle - so in Na'vi it may be too? Other emotive/discourse particles (spoken punctuation) might also be useful, such as a particle used for "thinking aloud" or parenthetical comments (spoken parentheses) which one does not expect to be answered.

particle to answer back someone (*torr) (B)

A: We won't fight in this war. - B: *Torr! (= Your negative statement is wrong. We will!)
A: I suppose you wasn't able to hunt a yerik. - B: *Torr, it's already in the storage. (= Your negative statement is wrong. I was able to do this.)
Modelled according to German "doch". Can be used only after negative sentences to express disapproval, that means: to contradict the negative sense and therefore stress out the (positive) contrary. [3] Japanese uses the verb "be different" for an alike function (although in Japanese it's possible to use this answer also after positive sentences to contradict it - that's impossible with the German "doch".)

in vain (particle) (B)

Kuuyi muki The water is hot. vs. Kuuyi 'as muki The water was hot (but isn’t any longer).
Pam kiihut peenani He is going to paint the house vs. Pam 'as kiihut peenani He was going to paint the house. (but didn’t).
This idea is shamelessly stolen from Hopi, where the particle ’as indicates something done "in vain" or that "isn't so now" or "didn't really happen." It's priority was put up for vote, and B won. [4]. The Navajo version of this, ch’ééh, has a more solid overtone of futility.

mis-, do something wrongly (B)

misunderstand, botch
Klingon verb suffix {-Ha'}, secondary usage: {yaj} "understand", {yajHa'} "misunderstand"

undo, un- (B)

Gah! This is terrible. Now I have to undo my war paint.
Untie the prisoners.
Some way to indicate reversion.

should, ought to (B)

Should we ask for this word?
You ought not speak that way to her.
People are a bit uncomfortable using zene for this.

the two types of "but" (A)

My father went into the hills, but my mother to the coast. (simple contrast)
"Hamlet" wasn't written by Dickens, but by Shakespeare. (more like "instead", correcting the wrong assumption)
Many languages (the majority?) makes a difference between the contrast in the named two sentences, while English covers both concepts using "but". In German there is "aber" vs. "sondern", in Japanese "ga" vs. "naku", in Swedish "men" vs. "utan" etc.

"particle of unimportance" (*ängal) (B)

If you drink that much alcohol you will feel bad. - *Ängal. (= I don't care.)
It is *ängal, whether our chances are good or bad, we must try it! (= It doesn't matter, ...)
In German "egal" = /e.'ga:l/ is used to express, that something is seen as unimportant (it doesn't matter, I don't care, ...). "Egal" can be used as a predicate noun (something is egal = it doesn't matter) or as a sentence itself (= I don't care about what was mentioned). In German "egal" can't be inflected, that's why it's impossible to use "egal" as a normal adjective, so you can't say "eine *egale Warnung" (a warning, I don't care about), but maybe this could be possible in Na'vi?

each other (A)

We will see each other again.
We care for each other.
Like "einander" in German or "(o)tagai" in Japanese. Perhaps a verbal derivation or infix? But it could also be in nouns: their fight (against each other) vs. their fight (together, against another).

hardly, barely (adv) (B)

He hardly spoke a word.
There are barely enough warriors to fight the skypeople.
in the sense of scarcely, little, 'as good as not'; "kaum" (German)

merely, only (not "nì'aw" - exclusively), just (adv.) (B)

He merely said that he had seen Toruk Makto.
He is only a child.

might, maybe (*kamo) (B)

I will see him tonight *kamo. (= I might see him tonight.)
Japanese かも = /kamo/; equivalent to "...maybe." or "...might..." in English. I don't think we have "might" yet, we have kxawm + FUT, but this would be another way.

"I wonder ..." (*kana) (B)

Should I eat this *kana?
Japanese かな~ = /kanaa/; Equivalent to "I wonder.." in English. Turns a statement or question into a question that you are asking yourself. More indirect than "srak?" Latin and Greek use the "deliberative subjunctive" — a question in the subjunctive — for a similar sense.

particle of splipped memory (*kxe') (B)

What's his name *kxe'?
Japanese っけ = /kke/; A particle that is added to a question that shows that at some point in the past the speaker had some kind of at least tenuous grasp on the subject, but as tsmkan Keyl says, has forgotten, and is seeking for the listener to help "bail him/her out."

keep (on), continue to (B)

He kept falling off the pa'li, but he kept trying.
Not sure if this needs a lexical item, or some other grammatical trickery to get this continuative aspect idea.

-times (B)

He passed by twice.
Is the -lie element in ’awlie generalizable?

besides (A)

Besides the animals I mentioned before, we also saw a thanator.

kind (n), sort (n), type (A)

What kind of food do you want today?
What sort of sky person was she?
See also "species" in the Animals section. Could be in the interrogatives & demonstrative series, and adjectival rather than nominal: what kind of (used for "what is your favorite color" maybe), that kind of (= such a), etc.

make, causative of adjectives (A)

He made a mess (made the place dirty).
I'll make this clear to you.
This may be more of a grammar question, but it has a big overlap with vocabulary.

like (conj), as (conj) (B)

We hunt as you do.
When he gets mad, he roars like an ikran.
maybe the same word in both cases (like German: "wie")?

a second "or" (maybe even four "or's"?) (A)

Is the difference in the two "and's" (sì, ulte) reflected in "or" too? Is there - besides that or instead of it - maybe a difference between the "or" in cases of exhausted listing (like Latin: aut; "male or female") in contrast to the "or" in cases of not complete listing (like Latin: vel; "animals, like inkrans, thanators or fan lizards [or others]")? Klingon has all four differences.

"ex-", former (B)

ex-marine
Maybe an affix or alike to express the sense of "is not any longer a [noun]"; maybe related to the "in vain" particle? or -am used as a suffix? (maybe then also N-iye for "N-to-be"?)

next (conj, adj), then after that (conj) (B)

First, go to the movie theater, next buy a ticket, then after that enter the theater.
He was the next person in line.
The sense where it's used as a conjunction can probably be handled by "maw". Might want to avoid the annoying ambiguity of "next" in English.

of course, naturally (C)

Of course I didn't call him back right away!
The sky people naturally had no idea what we were talking about.
To express that the speaker considers the statement natural or obvious.

how (degree) (C)

How long did they stay?
How cold did it get while you were up north?
Pefya presumably only means "how" in the sense of manner.