Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Parolas lexic e parolas grammatic in interlingua


(Languages of this post: Interlingua, English)


Le nomines (o substntivos), le adjectivos/adverbios, e le verbos forma le plus importante parte de interlingua o de ulle altere lingua simile. Quando on vole exprimer nove conceptos, on cunea nove nomines, verbos, adjectivos, o adverbios. Istes es le parolas lexic de linguas simile a interlingua.

Le parolas grammatic de un lingua--como prepositiones, pronomines, e determinantes (como "le", "un", "iste", "ille", "mi", "tu", "su", "nostre", "vostre", "lor", "a", "in", "a", "de", "infra", "sur", e "ante")--es morphemas que divide le linguage parlate o scribite in gruppos de parolas formante hierarchias syntactic de signification.

Le conceptos exprimite per iste hierarchias grammatic non es multo numerose per ulle lingua, e illos (e le vocabulario que los exprime) generalmente cambia multo lentemente in le historia de ulle lingua.

On pote dicer in interlingua, pro exemplo, alique como "Ille grode prutinios flucinava in lor blisumbio, e omne le effecto esseva multo supercalifragilistichexpialidoce." Ben que nos non cognosce le natura de prutinios, nos sape que ille/illas/illos es grode e que ille/illas/illos faceva alique o que alique occurreva in lor blisumbio, que possibilemente significa un loco ubi on pote flucinar o un parte (anatomic?) de un prutinio.

E nos anque sape que "supercalifragistichexpialidoce" es un adjectivo que describe le effecto de iste grode prutinios que flucinava in lor blisumbio. Il pare que iste effecto es bon, ma nos non pote esser confidente que illo non es nocive. Nos anque sape que iste adjectivo anque ha un forma adverbial, supercalifragilistichexpialidocemente cuje patrono de accentuation es "súpercálifrágilísticéxpiálidóceménte". Multo interessante, nonne?

Nos sape isto proque dicer "Ille grode prutinios flucinava in lor blisumbio, e omne le effecto esseva multo supercalifragilistichexpialidoce." es simile a dicer "Le belle feminas dansava in le jardin, e le effecto esseva multo stimulante/sensual/belle/...."

Ecce lo que passa si nos tenta inventar nove parolas grammatic: Si on dice o scribe "ollu" in vice de "ille" e "pla" in vice de "in" e "bunse" in vice de "lor" (Olli belle feminas dansava pla bunse jardin), nos sape que belle feminas dansava, ma nos non sape ubi es illas e le relation de lor dansa con le parola "jardin". Sin cognoscer clarmente iste relationes syntactic, nos non pote interpretar iste proposition.

Le collection de iste parolas structural es multo stabile in ulle lingua, ma illes pote cambiar lentemente. Pro exemplo, in le anglese local de Long Beach, California, inter multe personas le parola "homeboy" comencia a functionar como "he" in constructiones como "Homeboy told me his sister's gonna have her tongue pierced, and I'm sure their father will be even more pissed than he was when she came home with her boyfriend's name tattooed on her arm."

(Adaptate de "Parolas lexic e parolas grammatic", "Interlingua in interlingua", [curso], Capitulo 3)

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Nouns (or substantives), adjectives/adverbs, and verbs form the most important part of Interlingua or of any other similar language. When people want to express new concepts, they coin new nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs. These are the lexical words of languages similar to Interlingua.

The grammatical words of a language--such as prepositions, pronouns, determiners (like "le", "un", "iste", "ille", "mi", "tu", "su", "nostre", "vostre", "lor", "a", "in", "a", "de", "infra", "sur", e "ante")--are morphemes that divide spoken or written language into groups of words forming syntactical hierarchies of meaning.

The concepts expressed by these grammatical hierarchies are not very numerous for any language, and they (and the vocabulary that expresses them) generally change very little in the history of any language.

It is possible to say in Interlingua, for example, something like "Ille grode prutinios flucinava in lor blisumbio, e omne le effecto esseva multo supercalifragilistichexpialidoce."

Though we don't know anything about the nature of "prutinios," we know that they are "grode" and that they did something or that something occurred in their "blisumbio," which possibly means a place it is possible to "flucinar" or an (anatomic?) part of a "prutinio."

And we also know that "supercalifragilistichexpialidoce" is an adjective that describes the effect of these "grode prutinios" that "flucinava in lor blisumbio." It seems that this effect is a good one, but we cannot be sure that it is not damaging. We also know that this adjective also has an adverbial form, "supercalifragilistichexpialidocemente," and that its stress pattern is " súpercálifrágilísticéxpiálidóceménte." Very interesting, isn't it?

We know this because saying "Ille grode prutinios flucinava in lor blisumbio, e omne le effecto esseva multo supercalifragilistichexpialidoce" is much like saying "Le belle feminas dansava in le jardin, e le effecto esseva multo stimiulante/sensual/belle/...."

Here's what happens if we try to invent new grammatical words: If a person says or writes "ollu" instead of "ille" and "pla" instead of "in" and "bunse" instead of "lor" (Olli belle feminas dansava pla bunse jardin), we know that "belle feminas" danced, but we don't know where they are and the relation of their dance with the word "jardin." Without clearly knowing these syntactic relations, we can't interpret this sentence.

The collection of these structural words is very stable in any language, but they can change slowly. For example, in the English spoken locally in Long Beach, California, the word "homeboy" among many people is starting to function like "he" in constructions like "Homeboy told me his sister's gonna have her tongue pierced, and I'm sure their father will be even more pissed than he was when she came home with her boyfriend's name tattooed on her arm."

(Adapted from "Parolas lexic e parolas grammatic," "Interlingua in interlingua," [curso], Chapter 3)

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