Minhast: Difference between revisions
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Although both the Preposed and Postposed-Wa structures bind adjuncts to clauses, an important determiner for the speaker in selecting which structure to use is the issue of scope. The Preposed-Wa structure has narrow scope, and governs only its adjunct and the clause immediately following it, whereas the Postposed-Wa structure has wide scope, governing not just its adjunct and the clause immediately preceding it; its scope governs all the clauses of a sentence. This difference is why the majority of evidential and modal particles are sentence-final; evidentials and modals are in the majority of cases used to cover the speaker's beliefs and attitudes and trustworthiness of the source, which applies to whole statements, but rarely for just individual segments of a given statement. Another important difference is that the Preposed-Wa structure can be preceded by a verb marked with =mā or other subordinating clitic. This means that the number of Preposed-Wa structures can occur for each and every clause in a sentence. Such is not the case with Postposed-Wa structures; only one Postposed-Wa structure can occur for a given sentence. | Although both the Preposed and Postposed-Wa structures bind adjuncts to clauses, an important determiner for the speaker in selecting which structure to use is the issue of scope. The Preposed-Wa structure has narrow scope, and governs only its adjunct and the clause immediately following it, whereas the Postposed-Wa structure has wide scope, governing not just its adjunct and the clause immediately preceding it; its scope governs all the clauses of a sentence. This difference is why the majority of evidential and modal particles are sentence-final; evidentials and modals are in the majority of cases used to cover the speaker's beliefs and attitudes and trustworthiness of the source, which applies to whole statements, but rarely for just individual segments of a given statement. Another important difference is that the Preposed-Wa structure can be preceded by a verb marked with =mā or other subordinating clitic. This means that the number of Preposed-Wa structures can occur for each and every clause in a sentence. Such is not the case with Postposed-Wa structures; only one Postposed-Wa structure can occur for a given sentence. | ||
=== Degrees of Comparison === | |||
In contrast to many languages, particularly the Indo-European languages, Minhast does not have a specific nominal affix to mark a NP in comparison phrases. As an example, there is no equivalent to Englsh ''-er'' or ''-est'' which are attached to nouns. Before continuing on the structure of Minhast comparative and superlative structures, a set of definitions is required (taken from Carsten Becker's seminar "Comparison in Ayeri): | |||
# Comparee: The entity subject to comparison; | |||
# Quality: The property being compared. In English, this is typically the base adjective, e.g. big, small, quick, slow, etc. | |||
# Marker: Indicates the level of comparison. In English, this is typically the suffix ''-er'' attached to the adjective that serves as the Quality. | |||
# Standard: The entity that is being compared to. | |||
An example can be illustrated using the English sentence "The dog is bigger than the cat". Here, the Comparee is ''dog'', because it is the entity being compared. The adjective ''big'' is the property that is used for implementing the comparison. The suffix ''-er'', attached to the adjective ''big'', is the Marker. Finally, the role of ''cat'' is that of the Standard; it is the entity that is being compared to. | |||
Minhast employs a different structure than English. Minhast uses a two-clause construction is used. The Comparee appears in the first clause, followed by either the verbs ''anuk-an'' (lit. to hold a larger share) , or ''isp-an'' (to hold the lesser share), to which is attached the General Subordinative marker ''=mā''. | |||
=== Word Order === | === Word Order === | ||