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<p>Posted by <b><!--poster-->Jonathana Tegire</b>
on <!--date-->8:18 8/26/02
<p>In reply to: (none)
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<i>Airanasin</i> and <i>Emai</i>!
<p>In the neverending quest that is language creation, there is one major
problem for speakers of almost every, if not every, language : How to get
around the idioms that are taken for granted. Every language has a way of
saying things, and many of them are idiomatic.
<p>For example : You may not think of this, but why do we English-speakers
((oh we evil English-speakers)) say that something is an adjective, such
as when we say, "The cat is orange." How can the cat be a property? A
thing can only have properties. Or at least the Tigerians thought so. So
they would say, <i>"San athana sameni oshana,"</i> the cat has orange (-ness).
English is always a very bad example when trying to create a language, in
my humble opinion, because it is nothing more that a compilation and
melding of almost every language type on the planet Earth.
Anyone else have a problem with getting over the high hurdles of idioms,
or is it just me?
<p>-J. Tegire
<hr><i>Mark responds:
<p>I wouldn't call that an idiom, since it's understandable from the
meanings of the words (one meaning of English 'be' is predication,
assignment of a property). I like your "The cat has orange." Another
way of handling predication is to make the "adjectives" into verbs,
as Japanese does.
<p>Idioms in general are a snare for the monolingual conlang creator.
I think the best cure is to learn another language, so you start to be
aware of quirks in your native language.
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<b>Jonathana Tegire</b>
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