Newsgroups: soc.culture.esperanto,sci.lang
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From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Subject: Re: One point against Esperanto
Message-ID: <D601Gs.3H9@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <D5I84G.Bou@indirect.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 1995 13:58:02 GMT
Lines: 43

In article <D5I84G.Bou@indirect.com> stevemac@bud.indirect.com (Stefano MacGregor) writes:
>Lastatempe skribis hinsenk@cyclone.ERE.UMontreal.CA (Hinsen Konrad) jene:
>
>>I am beginning to wonder why some   >Mi min demandas, kial iuj s`ajnas
>people seem to think plural markers  opinii, ke plimultigiloj estas
>are essential on nouns, but bad on   gravegaj c`e substantivoj, sed c`e
>adjectives.                          adjektivoj malbonaj.

The plural marker on the noun is motivated semantically: it is pluralised
in order to indicate that two or more entities of a kind are involved.
The plural marker on the adjective is motivated syntactically: it is
pluralised only because the noun is, so its marker conveys no meaning.

>  How strange!  I'd never noticed      Kiel mirinde!  Mi neniam rimarkis
>that before, but come to think of    tion, sed c`iu ne-angla lingvo, kiun
>it, every foreign language that I'm  mi konas, havas au` ambau` au` neniun
>acquainted with has either both or   plimultigan indikon, krom Interlingvo,
>neither, except Interlingua, which   kio estas ja alia konstruita lingvo.
>is another constructed language.

That simply means that you should get acquainted with a few more languages.

>  Let's see...                         Ni pensu...
>  Both:  Hebrew, Greek, Latin, all     Ambau`:  la hebrea, greka, latina,
>the Romance languages, German, and   c`iuj latinidaj, germana, kaj sveda
>Swedish (not =sure= about this       lingvoj (sed mi ne certas pri la
>last).                               sveda).

The noun only (meaning no number agreement): Armenian, English,
Georgian, Hungarian, Persian, Quechua and all Altaic languages.

My list is longer.  So there.  :-)

>  Neither:  Chinese and Japanese.      Neniun:  la c`ina kaj la japana.

You might consider acknowledging the fact that these two do have
optional number marking, but the adjective never agrees in number.

-- 
`"Na, na ... ah mean, *no wey*, wi aw due respect, ma lady," stammers Joe.'
Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk)    (J Stuart, _Auld Testament Tales_)
* Centre for Cognitive Science,  2 Buccleuch Place,   Edinburgh EH8 9LW,  UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK
