Semantics / Signifologio If you can't read Esperanto, skip ahead to the English section... Overview / Superrigardo Mi provas malgrandigi la bazan radikaron per pli radikala uzo de kunmetismo ol en Esperanto. Tamen pri kelkaj semantikaj kampoj mi disdividas pli zorge ol en aliaj lingvoj, ekz. nombroj kaj mensostatoj, emocioj. Afiksoj similaj al E-o "-um" multas. -rox, -toxn, -cjaj havas modelojn kies preciza apliko al apartaj radikoj oni devas lerni aparte. Tamen idiotisma kunmeto kiel "retumi" estas pli facile lernebla ol neologismacxo kiel "*(ret)surfi" kaj mi pensas ke lerni la apartajn signifojn de {raxm-rox}, {graxm-cjaj}, {hqun-toxn} estas pli facilaj ol lerni tri novajn radikojn. Seksaj signifoj: la plimulto el hom-radikoj havas senseksan signifon. Afiksu {-viq} "vir-" aux {-sxy} "-in" por seksdistingo. Tamen malmultaj rilatovortoj estas baze inaj, kaj oni derivas la virformon per {-txaj} (mal-). max homo; human max-viq viro; man max-sxy virino; woman fru ido; child fru-viq filo; son req'jxy edzino; wife req'jxy-txaj edzo; husband Ne ekzistas bazaj radikoj por malobjektivaj kvalitoj kiel "bona, bela, placxa, alloga" ktp. Mi nomas la emociojn kaj de ili formas kvalitnomoj per {-fwa} ("-iga"). diq plezuro diq-fwa placxa sax aprobo sax-fwa bona; tia, kia iu aprobas prym belsento prym-fwa bela ---------------------------- Semantic overview in English Most root words are nouns. I add suffixes to get verbs & adjectives/adverbs. E.g. raxm a cat, cats raxm-van to be a cat, is a cat raxm-za pertaining to cats raxm-tan resembling a cat raxm-da with many cats raxm-na made of cats baxm newness baxm-van to be new, is new baxm-box new, newly runx going, moving runx-zox to go, move, walk, etc. Some root words have a broad meaning, which can generally be narrowed in an idiomatic way by the suffix {-cjaj}. graxm message graxm-cjaj email fiqm health fiqm-cjaj not having an infection Others (far more) have a narrow meaning, and a more general word is derived with {-toxn}. raxm cat raxm-toxn animal max human max-toxn sentient being I suspect idiomatic compounds such as these are easier to learn than new root words. Not sure how to control this experiment though. Oh well. Special adjective meanings are derived from some concrete nouns with {-rox}. They either abstract some of the root's qualities to make a general adjective, or form a metaphor. zjam finger (or toe) zjam-rox long, round, and narrow pwiqm water pwiqm-rox humble tiqw comfy chair tiqw-rox accepting, non-judgmental Other than those, the suffixes are fairly straightforward. ------- numbers Only the primes and other interesting constants have root words. bax 0; nul, zero ciq 1; one cxu 2; two dax 3; three cxu-cxu 4; four dxy 5; five cxu-dax 6; six fy 7; seven multiple ways to express composite numbers: cxu-cxu-cxu 8 = 2*2*2 dax-pe-dxy 8 = 3 + 5 giq-se-dax 8 = 11 - 3 dax-dax 9; nine cxu-dxy 10; ten giq 11; eleven gxu 13; thirteen hax 17; seventeen hqy 19 hxiq 23 ju 29 jxax 31 ky 37 lu 41 my 47 zxeq'max 1973 zxix'fu 1999 zxix'giq 2003 ceq'ku aleph-null, countable infinity zxix'ku aleph-one, first uncountable infinity cix'tu i, sqrt(-1) dix'ku pi (3.14159....) Derivation Ordinals are derived with {-pa}. Often have idiomatic implication of Nth importance, priority. bax-pa zeroth; easily overlooked, but primary ciq-pa first cxu-pa second etc. Time-period ordinals are formed with {-gla}. What time-period one refers to depends on context. !tq tu-i kq-o runx-zox mwe-fja hax-gla. Please come at seventeen (= 5pm); or, Please come on the seventeenth (of this month) Dates are written as : year{-gla} month{-gla} day-of-month{-gla}. E.g. 1999 May 29 zxiq'fu-gla dxy-gla ju-gla That day at 7:37 AM: zxiq'fu-gla dxy-gla ju-gla fy-gla ky-gla For 7:13 on an unspecified day, start with {hyr} (hour) - else would imply July 13: hyr fy-gla gxu-gla Names of days of the week can be formed with {-nxla}. It doesn't apply only to numbers, though. tix'sqax-nxla - Sunday (worship-day) ciq-nxla - Another term for Sunday dax-nxla - Tuesday (third-day) jxyj-rjax-nxla - Saturday (rest-day) Relative time adjectives form with -pa. hyr dax-pa three hours hence cxeq'txax se-cxu-pa two days ago Fractions one forms with the conjunction {dxe} (divided by). If the initial number is omitted, {ciq} (1) is assumed. dxe-ciq whole, undivided dxe-cxu half fy-dxe-hax seven seventeenths dxe-bax indeterminate quantity (div/0) Numbers are, like other root morphemes, basically nouns. They can be used as adjectives/adverbs, or verbs with appropriate suffixes. graxm-zox pq dxy-box hxy-i. I sent a message to the five of them. kq miq-i ciq-van. There's only one of me. twax-cu hxy-i keq'gxu-zox ciq-pa. The book I hid first. pq dxy-box mruqn "Stown-ram o runx-zox. They fively (i.e., as a group of five) went to Stone Mountain. Watch out for the idiomatic adjective suffix {-rox}. It has tricky, often undocumented signifigance with numbers, varying as to the speaker's numerological superstitions or conventions. For instance, {fy-rox} might mean "Ptolemaic" (referring to the seven-planet system). math cxu pe dxy txe-saxm fy. 2 + 5 = 7 fy txe-sra dax. 7 > 3 cxu me dxy txe-saxm jxax-pe-ciq. 2^5 > 31 + 1 se-cxu txe-sra se-dax. -2 > -3 ----------------------------------- Comparison of suffixes and clitics with Esperanto equivalents Suffixes in gzb are different from most affixes in E-o. Mostly they don't have a meaning of their own, but a pattern for changing something else's meaning. So they can't stand on their own like E-o affixes can. These don't change the grammatical category of a word. hqa fi-, -acx; disapproval attitude suffix la kara; affectionate attitude suffix kxa mosxta, sankta ma indirect relationship; meta, recursive, self-referencing sra more, pli; comparative suffix (v, adj, adv) sra-cox less, malpli With verbs, without an explicit contrast, {sra(-cox)} contrasts with the previous state of the patient {-zox} or topic {-van}. gxiq-sra-van to grow baxm-sra-cox-van to age, get older (lit. less young) toxn generalized class cjaj specialized class Idiomatic, like E-o {-um}. Zipf's law - more-often talked about stuff should have shorter names. For some categories the specifics are talked about more often, for others the genera. Ekz., raxm -> raxm-toxn. If one lives with a cat, or has friends who do, one talks/thinks more about cats than about animals in general. graxm -> graxm-cjaj One often talks about sending a message to someone; less often one has to specifically state that one sent an email. txox eta; malgrandixo, malpliigo de radika senso zxa ega, grandigxo, pliigo de radika senso These don't correspond exactly to E-o {-ega, -eta} as in {domego, dometo}. They more often resemble the use in {rideto}, {pordego}. E.g., E-o {hometo}, a little human; but gzb {max-txox}, subhuman, Homo habilis. But {max-gxiq-fja}, a little human. These suffixes make the resultant word an adjective. See the discussion under {adjectives}. box quality-noun -> adjective tan -eca; vaguely similar to root za pri~a - having to do with root faj-mwe enda, inda; ought to have - done to't faj ebla; able to have - done to it fwa inducing a state of; iga kwa color of [root] da full of [root], saturated or covered with it na made of [root] Good place to explain what I meant earlier. If this were E-o, {kwa} by itself would just mean "color". (gzb: fu-txy, light-element.) But, consider: zym-zox fu-txy miq-i. I think about color. (lame example, but...) If I said: zym-zox kwa miq-i * it would mean: color-of-thinking [topic]. Poetical, but not a complete sentence. {-kwa} holds a pattern for forming meaning from meaning, not a meaning of its own. sox ema; tending to do The root takes on a verbish sense even if not an action root - one doesn't need to insert {zox} or whatever. E.g., {vlym-sox}, tending to wear clothes, having a nudity taboo. {pliq-sox}, tending to take pills. (compare "gastema, librema, orema" in eo) rox eca; characteristic quality of (tangible noun -> adjective Another "umiga" suffix. Forms adjective by picking out an interesting quality of the root concrete noun. raxm-rox, independent. Can be metaphorical: pwiqm-rox, humble. All these that form adjectives can also be used as adverbs. Really there's no distinction in form in gzb; if it comes after a noun or pronoun it's an adj., else if after a verb, an adverb. These clitics are similar to the Esperanto correlatives, and form demonstratives, question- and relative-pronouns. Q.v. loq kiu, kio (interilo); who, which... noq kiu, kio (demando); who, what? koq tiu, tio (cxe mi); this here toq tiu, tio (cxe vi); this, that poq tiu, tio (for de ni); that yonder These correspond to {mal} or {ne} in Esperanto. (Also compare {henx} (not), {zxoq} (please, no!), {bax} (zero), and {ge} (without).) cox reverse, contradictory quality fja zero or minimum possible degree of quality txaj other member of assymetrical relationship; complement of pair {cox} is used for scales that extend (for practical purposes) forever in both directions. {fja} if there's an absolute zero, or a non-arbitrary zero point at the middle. Sometimes both can be used for different senses, e.g. hum profunda, deep hum-fja malprofunda, neprofunda, malmultprofunda, shallow hum-cox alta, high jaxln varmo, warmth, heat jaxln-cox cold (on human tolerances scale) jaxln-fja at, near absolute zero; superfluid temperatures {txaj} is used for reversing actions, & for complementary, assymetric relationships. req'jxy wife req'jxy-txaj husband fru child fru-txaj parent bly-zox throw bly-zox-txaj catch niqm name niqm-txaj meaning, reference riqm see riqm-txaj be seen twaxl interior angle twaxl-txaj exterior angle These are applied only to numbers and quantity-words. gla Nth time-period (year, hour, etc. by context) pa ordinal, spatial/priority series position These form nouns. hqoxw prova igo; the attempt to make something thus zxy-hqoxw (attempted) hypnosis toqj eco; v, adj, adv -> noun suffix cxa ilo; tool with which on does something ha substance with which one does something, with a certain effect Also the normal root {nxiqw}, a body part; between them these break up the polysemous {-ilo} terrain. tla -isto (professional) lox ano, ism-ano, -isto (follower of a leader or philosophy) jxwa ejo; loko plena je [radiko] sqiqm-cxa-jxwa komputilejo kox ejo; loko en kiu oni [radik]as, kiu estas [radik]a dxurm-kox laborejo Also the normal root {tyn}, a place. Comparing to -j and -ar- in Esperanto, I have: daj group of similar things in one place zla the whole set of similar things, not necessarily of common place or function Also the root {cu}, system. max-cu company, church, club, etc. max-daj crowd max-zla humanity These form verbs. ca reflexive verb van state/becoming verb zox active verb The Esperanto {-ig, -igx} functions are fulfilled in gzb by: 1. {ca} / {van} / {zox} distinction - e.g., sqyj-van puri sqyj-zox purigi vlym-ca vesti sin vlym-zox vestigi iun 2. {jax-i, jax-o, jax-rq}, esp. topic/comment sentences pq miq-i sqyj-box jax-i he's clean pq miq-i sqyj-box jax-o he gets clean zunq-cox-box jax-o leq'pax hxy-i raxm gaxn-i the cat kills the bat (lit., the bat becomes dead because of the cat) 3. {-hqoxw}, prova igo. Instrui != lernigi, kuraci != sanigi; but is a similar relationship. hyw-hqoxw-zox instrui (provi lernigi) fiqm-hqoxw-zox kuraci (provi sanigi) These gzb suffixes have no Esperanto equivalent. jqa rotate 90 degrees around axis perpendicular to gravity hum deep hum-jqa long/wide laxn floor laxn-jqa wall ma meta, recursive, indirect E.g., tax sibling tax-ma cousin gyn shape, especially polygon gyn-ma fractal ram proper (personal) name tag sqam family name tag {-ram} & {-sqam} can in practice be omitted when the form of the name violates gzb's phonemics - no possible confusion with another word. Needed only when confusion might result. pxa thing, stuff that's a result of action described by root nxox chemical that's primary/active incredient of root substance I think more often of tea ({teqn'ju}) than of caffeine {teqn'ju-nxox}, etc. Zipf's law again. vox name of glyph representing root E.g. {cxu-vox} names the numeral "2". {i-vox} names the at "@" sign. These E-o affixes have equivalents that in gzb are regular root morphemes (or kunmetoj). But, in E-o there's not such a sharp distinction between suffix & root. ulo max anto, ktp tu ato, ktp hxy ajxo sxiqw ilo cxa / nxiqw (but see {ha} ejo tyn (but see {jxwa, kox}) ero txy (atypical root morpheme, almost suffixoid) ujo, ingo mrax -ar cu (also -daj, -zla) -id fru cxef- cy estro gym ismo zym-cu -in sxy -iv sunx ologio zxiq eks- sqy ----------------- attitude suffixes Correspond to -cxj- -nj- & -acx- in Esperanto. Oni povas meti unu el tiuj post iu ajn vorto, por montri sian sinteno pri la afero de gxi signifata. gym-tla-kxa mosxta estro honorable leader req'jxy-la kara edzino my dear wife zxy-ba songxo kaj bona kaj malbona a dream both good and bad max-hqa fihomo, homacxo, fripono, kanajlo... scoundrel, rascal, ... ------------ to be / esti La multsignifo de "esti", "to be", ktp en kelkaj lingvoj ni evitu cxi-lingve. Ekzisto: raxm miq-i biqnx-van. estas kato. aux: raxm goq. jen kato. Enareco: kyw miq-i muw-van nxiqw nxin-i. pulmo estas (unu el la) korp-organo. heqm'lu miq-i hqum-toxn muw-van nxin-i. a magnolia is a tree. Priskribo, stato: kyw miq-i jxyj-cox-box jax-i. pulmoj estas lacaj. kriq-tla jax-i. (mi) estas verkisto. "gxorgxeq-wam miq-i "tiqneqsi-wam hqin tyn-van. Georgio (tuj) sude de Tenesio lokigxas. rix'max txinx tyn-van. (Mi) estas (lokigxas) en la (subo de la) domo. Egaleco: cxu pe dxy txe fy saxm-van. 2 + 5 = 7 -------------------- Miscellaneous notes on semantic fields 1. "To know" (to wit, to ken) / savoir, connai^tre / wissen, kennen / scii, koni, sperti ktp... English tends to bundle these meanings together in one word of broad meaning. Esperanto follows western European langs in distinguishing acquaintance with persons etc. from knowledge of facts and sciences. {gzb} makes a different kind of distinction in its three main "know" verbs. hyw-van dejv miq-ma-i. I know (am well acquainted with) Dave. kun-van tam-ram miq-ma-i. I've heard of (but haven't met, or if so only briefly) Tom. hyw-van zxiq-sqiqm miq-ma-i. I know (have real working knowledge of) computer science. kun-van ljaxw-gjax miq-ma-i. I know something about (but haven't practiced) field linguistics. The difference in {hyw} vs. {kun} is directness or depth of knowledge. I make a further distinction between {hyw} & {sunx}, the latter implying more practical competence: hyw-van suomen-ram gjax-i. I've studied, but never much used, Finnish. hyw-van helenik gjax-i. I've studied & used (but amn't fluent in) Greek. sunx-van esperanto gjax-i. I know (am fluent in) Esperanto. {hyw-van} can also mean "to remember", and {hyw-nxiqw} mainly means memory. 2. Buying, selling, commercial things The main root words for this field are {sxaxj} (possession of goods) and {kaxj} (exchange). kajx-zox twax-cu-vuj hxy-i kq sxaxj-o. exchange book [patient] me possesion-to. I buy a book. twax-cu miq-i kq sxaxj-i. I own a book. (The book [topic] (is) me possession at.) kajx-zox twax-cu-vuj hxy-i kq sxaxj-rq. exchange book possesion-from. I sell a book. Other useful derivations: kaxj-tla salesman, trader, sales-clerk kaxj-twax-cu-tla publisher or bookman kaxj-kox store, market kaxj-twax-cu-kox bookstore sxaxj-o-zox to acquire sxaxj-o-sox acquisitive kaxj-ha money kaxj-cxa a credit card, among other things 3. sqe / be Both these modifiers are glossed as "maybe". Their usage differs. pq miq-i gxiq-van sqe. They [topic] are-big maybe. kaxj-kox o runx-zox be. (I) store to go might. I might go to the store. pq miq-i ty i tyn-van sqe. he [topic] home at be-at maybe. Maybe he is at home. {sqe} mainly relates to uncertainty in knowledge, or of descriptions. {be} focuses on uncertainty of one's plans and intentions. 4. mje / sqy / daxn All these refer to things past. {mje} refers to a past aspect of something that may (or mayn't) still be around. Most often it forms a "past tense" for verbs. But it can clitic onto a (pro)noun & emphasize its past versions, as in kq mje me awhile ago gjax-koq mje an earlier form of this language {sqy-box} describes something formerly in some role, as in English "ex-wife". {daxn-box} describes something no longer existing or alive or effective. More polite (& terse) than {zunq-cox-box}, "dead". gym-tla-sqy our former leader gym-tla-daxn our late leader Sometimes all are appropriate to the same object, of course, but with different meanings. req'jxy-sqy ex-wife (emphasis that she isn't yr wife now) req'jxy-daxn ex-wife (emphasis that she isn't alive now) req'jxy mje wife awhile ago (the phase of her worldline when she was yr wife) 5. Prayer / pregxi There's no one root word (or single cusomary compound) corresponding to the English "prayer" (or E-o 'pregxi'). One can use the same root words and compounds that refer to talking with (or at) other physically present humans (etc.) to describle talking with God and the saints. gjax-zox talk twax-zox say twax-prym-zox praise, express appreciation twax-sax-zox (similar) lax-zox request twax-sjum-zox thank 6. Geography In {gzb} the directions are named by bound morphemes that occur in postpositions ({bi, gi, hqi, zxi} north, east, south, west). One can't use these plainly as nominals or adjectives to name regions; one must explicitly state south *of what*, etc. "gxorgxeq-wam hqi south of Georgia "gxorgxeq-wam hqinx the southern region of Georgia "usa-wam gi'hqrqnx max person of the southeast part of the U.S.A. Other useful terms: mrunq mountain cxeq'my slope pwiqm-daj body of water siq river, creek vleq'tax water bounded by land squn region squn-tyrn nation squn-kaxj market max-jxwa city, densely populated area peq'hiq road jxiq-vuj sign 7. Difficulty, danger, problem We use some of these words loosely in English to describe a variety of situations. The salient elements I want to describe in {gzb} by distinct words are probably: - requiring much effort - requiring moral courage - requiring research, thought, a creative solution - uncertain of success (risk) {hiq} {kurnx} {zym} {kxuj} ...............