Use of Opposites
Robert J. Petry
In the next RLR lesson I am going to be explaining the use of
opposites in Speedwords. And, along with this I have been reading
Ogden's little book on Opposition.
This has sparked my curiosity about how others handle opposites
in their language. In English words like:
up -- down
left -- right
hot -- cold
north -- south,
and many others are used. From the point of view of memorization
the beginner here for English would have to memorize eight
nonrelated words. In Speedwords four words would be memorized
plus a suffix. For instance up is up in Speedwords, but down is
UPo. Hot would be he, and cold HEx.
Thus, if one were going to memorize 50 words in English that had
opposites, only 25 would be memorized plus the suffix.
Thus, the memory effort is cut in half, or looking at it another
way, one's memory can be doubled by learning one suffix when it
comes to opposites.
So, how are opposites handled in your language?
Al l sue,
Bob
Jan Havlis
Greetings.
>In the next RLR lesson I am going to be explaining the use of
>opposites in Speedwords. And, along with this I have been reading
>Ogden's little book on Opposition.
>This has sparked my curiosity about how others handle opposites
>in their language. In English words like:
>up -- down
>left -- right
>hot -- cold
>north -- south,
>and many others are used. From the point of view of memorization
>the beginner here for English would have to memorize eight
>nonrelated words.
>Thus, if one were going to memorize 50 words in English that had
>opposites, only 25 would be memorized plus the suffix.
>Thus, the memory effort is cut in half, or looking at it another
>way, one's memory can be doubled by learning one suffix when it
>comes to opposites.
>
>So, how are opposites handled in your language?
While thinking out a mechanism of how to express spacial adverbs, I have
"discovered America", i.e. Hungarian way of adverbs creation.
My lang, Arkian, has 6 (up, down, left, right, before, beyond) + 2 (this
place, that place) + 1 (out of) roots for creating spacial adverbs and also
nouns, adjectives or verbs (similar model is also with those of time):
here - ut:hez (ut - where?, hez - this place), there - ut:irh (ut -
where?, irh - that place). To be (exist) here - Ban:hez:o (occur-this
place-INFIN).
These are meaningful roots, along with them exists determinatives of
pospositional cases, which may have similar meaning. It is a syntax rule
which implies that after question (marked with interrogative adverb) you may
answer using adverb or noun with postpositional case:
Where are you going (Go you whereat)? - Rojum:hi ul.
I am going there (Go I thereat). - Rojum:ca ul:irh.
I am going home (Go I own house-to). - Rojum:ca ija:r kasti:im.
to the left - ul:bid (ul - whereat?, bid - left side).
to the right - ul:rid (rid - right side).
With these relative adverbs the opposite can be used to express the
second one:
ul:bid - to the left, ul:bid:ox - opposite to the left, i.e. to the
right. One direction should be always defined (it dependes mostly on
traditions, in constructed culture, or on your intentions, in loglang or
artlang). In Arkian we also like to use metaphores for such directions: hell
- the south of heaven (this one we stolen from Slayer LP name).
Hojudijaca onale hijemor,
Lakantunok atrojum hijor Gods will be on your side
ce atrojumhi mer taxle only if you go in their direction
ge pelije ragin ifrab. and thereto wisdom is needed.
Jan Havlis
jd...@chemi.muni.cz
http://www.chemi.muni.cz/~jdqh/
conlangers: Grammar of cidarke - see arkian.html
ambassadors: Embassy of The Federation - see federate.html
BRAD COON
>So, how are opposites handled in your language?
Not sure if this is what you have in mind, but
Nova treats qualities (adjectives in English)
as being points on a line. The exact point is
marked by a Degree Morpheme.
nim good > bad
nim.sha good
nim.ge bad
nim.bi: neutral, not good or bad
nim.pung very bad
nim.mon very good
and so on, there are 27 degree morphemes right
now but I am thinking of combining several
similar terms.
I used to require that a quality morpheme always
be marked when used in compounds but now I leave
the unmarked one with a positive meaning, positive
always being the meaning on the left of the >.
*******************************************************
Brad Coon
CO...@CVAX.IPFW.INDIANA.EDU
http://www.ipfw.indiana.edu/east1/coon/web/index.htm
"Do'netyokit su do'sa'na'kit." (Live boldly but wisely.)
Nowan proverb
********************************************************
R. Skrintha
Hi,
On Wed, 21 Jan 1998, Robert J. Petry wrote:
> In the next RLR lesson I am going to be explaining the use of
> opposites in Speedwords.
[...]
> In Speedwords four words would be memorized
> plus a suffix. For instance up is up in Speedwords, but down is
> UPo. Hot would be he, and cold HEx.
That's nice, not too long yet auxlangy enough! :)
> So, how are opposites handled in your language?
Lin too aims to be a compact language. Part of this compactness
comes from nanosemy (nine-tuple meanings per word). Since captials are
regarded as seperate letters, that allows Lin 52*10 + 52*52*9 = 24 856
words that are at most 2 letter long (the first term has 10, not 9, since
it includes postpositions). Hence there are enough 2-letter words to map a
vast chunk of semantic space into it, without use of affixes.
To form opposites, a 1-to-1 substitution of letters in a word is made
using a table called the "antonymizer". The table is designed (where
possible) to maximize sound contrast: to oppose front vowels by back ones
(tho not high by low necessarily!), & to oppose stops by fricatives.
For example, in that table, k /k/ stands against B /B/, i stands against
u. Thus, the opposite of {ki} = "child" is {Bu} = "adult".
Regards,
skrintha
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