Precedence of Affixes
Vivid Myrtle Oak
On the Facebook group an important issue has been touched. How should we understand this phrase:
ârtwaļeuxex tau
Does it mean "My little ponies"? Or "My group of little ponies?" Or even "My little undersized group of horses"?
Last summer I have asked John Quijada via e-mail about the precedence of affixes, and got an answer. I didn't know about Ithkuil enthusiasts on Facebook then, and almost forgot about this letter since then. Sorry for this delay - but better late than never! :) After Bartłomiej Kamiński has reminded me of this issue, I can't wait to share the correspondence.
I have lost the origanal letter of mine now, but fortunately I have J.Q.'s exact answer! So, I asked him about the meaning of the word eqaļôp. Does it mean "A group of humanoids" or "Something similar to a group of humans"? Here's the answer.
The question you bring up about precedence of categories in an Ithkuil formative is a good one. It has always been my intention that suffixes that change the meaning or the referent of a formative (e.g., agential suffixes that cause the formative to identify a person as opposed to the base-formative itself), would then be governed by the Ca affix.
Therefore, the word eqalôp ("humanoid") modified into the AGGREGATIVE (eqaļôp) would refer to "a group of non-identical humanoids" and not "something similar to a group of non-identical humans." (The translation of the latter phrase would require two words, the first meaning "something/someone similar" and the second word being the AGGREGATIVE of eqal declined into the COMPARATIVE case.)
However, I now realize that I have occasionally been inconsistent with the use of this rule, as your Lord's Prayer example illustrates. When time permits, I will address this issue in an addendum page on the website. I believe I shall have to modify the rules for affixual adjuncts (Section 8.3 of the grammar) in order to use such adjuncts as a means of clarifying such precedence.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I appreciate your interest in Ithkuil.
--John Q.
Fpçalêpʰ
> Hello!
Hi!
> On the Facebook group an important issue has been touched. How should we
> understand this phrase:
>
>
>
Could you provide a gloss, please? It makes it easier to follow for
those who haven't yet memorized all the affix values (and saves time). I
also find it good practice to add glosses to my examples, because it
forces me to repeat the categories and reinforces the connection between
abbrevations and their morphological realizations.
The question is very interesting, though. I will try to take a closer
look at the affixes later when I have more time.
— Fpçalêpʰ
Paul Donnelly
> *ârtwaļeuxex tau*
Could you provide a gloss, please?
I think that's STA-'domesticated horse'-OBL-NRM/AGG/M/CSL/DEL-SIZ_2/4-SIZ_1/3 1m-COR.
Vivid Myrtle Oak
STA-'human'-OBL-NRM/AGG/M/CSL/DEL-SIM_2/7