40
votes
Accepted
"Turing-completeness" in conlangs
The best parallel for Turing completeness in human languages is the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. The NSM proposes that there is a limited set of basic semantic concepts which all human languages ...
- 3,711
35
votes
Accepted
How can syntactic ambiguity with pronouns be avoided?
Here are three options you might want to consider:
Noun classes assign each noun a class (well known examples include the gender systems of Indo-European languages, and also the more elaborate ...
- 3,472
29
votes
How can syntactic ambiguity with pronouns be avoided?
In addition to the options mentioned by Adarain and Jan, various reflexives and reflexive-like operations can often be of use in dealing with such situations. English already has some reflexives, ...
- 2,337
18
votes
"Turing-completeness" in conlangs
A language doesn't require grammatical structures specifically for expressing something to express it.
In Chinese, there aren't separate future and past tenses. At the same time, it's possible to ...
- 280
18
votes
Accepted
What are the defining traits of a Euro-centric conlang?
The term "Standard Average European" (SAE) pretty much covers it, and has been around since the 1930s. Haspelmath listed a number of typical "Euroversals" in a portion of the 2001 book Language ...
- 3,391
17
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between tense and aspect?
When discussing tense, aspect, and mood, it's important to distinguish a given language's grammatical markers from the abstract concepts being described. Thus, linguists use the words temporal ...
- 3,391
15
votes
Grammar concepts required for every conlang
Is there a method to make sure that a constructed language contains all the necessary grammar concepts, e.g. to make sure that a concept like genitive case or a construct state is present?
The ...
- 1,444
15
votes
Accepted
Grammar concepts required for every conlang
Darkgamma's reply wasn't wrong, but I think it slightly misses the question.
One way of ensuring that your conlang is able to convey a certain meaning/feature is to grab a text and start translating ...
- 166
15
votes
How do languages manage to make sense with a free word order?
It should be noted that in addition to relying heavily on one strategy, it's also possible to mix strategies is various different ways, relying on different strategies to back each other up. For ...
- 2,337
11
votes
What are the defining traits of a Euro-centric conlang?
Expanding on Sparksbet's answer, additional features, from the conlanging point of view as listed by Mark Rosenfelder in Advanced Language Construction (pp. 30-31), that tend to pile up on top of the ...
- 1,552
11
votes
How do languages manage to make sense with a free word order?
The way these languages do this is with inflections. Nouns, for example, can be declined to show cases, which tell the speaker things about what they are doing. Verbs can be used to show who the ...
- 1,365
11
votes
How can syntactic ambiguity with pronouns be avoided?
In addition to Adarain’s answer, the ambiguity can also be resolved in an out-of-the-box way. For example, English can use the former or the latter in place of an inflected form of he to distinguish ...
- 874
11
votes
Accepted
Should I include morphology in my proto language?
I am not at all certain why you would assume that protolanguages must have no morphology. PIE is just a language like any other before or since. If we review the relevant article, the Font of All ...
- 3,130
11
votes
Accepted
How to break out of the English mold when creating a conlang (specifically in regards to word modifiers)?
In the long term, learning another language reasonably well is probably the only way to get a "real feel" for how things can sound natural or not in other languages. That's a very ambitious ...
- 614
9
votes
Are there any grammatical aspects which do not have parallels in natural languages?
Well, y'know, ANADEW and all that, but...
As far as I know, there is no natural language with a grammaticalized antiperfect aspect--i.e., an aspect where the time of the action is after the reference ...
9
votes
Accepted
How do languages manage to make sense with a free word order?
There are three main strategies for indicating grammatical relations in languages with free word orders. It is common for languages to have more than one of these, and to my knowledge all free word ...
- 3,711
9
votes
Should I use “double o” in Toki Pona?
The book by jan Pije and jan Lope says:
We've learned how to address people and how to make commands; now let's put these two concepts together. Suppose you want to address someone and tell them to ...
- 190
9
votes
Conlang where the initial consonants of words have meaning?
Many languages mark things like those you mention at the beginning of a word. Noun class in Swahili and the other Bantu languages comes to mind. It doesn't require all roots to begin with a vowel; the ...
- 1,434
9
votes
Should I include morphology in my proto language?
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and Proto-Afroasiatic (PAA) are just the earliest ancestors we can reconstruct with reasonable certainty for their respective language families. That does not at all mean ...
- 311
8
votes
How do languages manage to make sense with a free word order?
The key principle to understanding what is being uttered or has been written is to know how to put the words into a structural context. This is often explained in simple terms using the W questions: ...
- 874
8
votes
Accepted
How would the grammar of a conlang develop as a creole from other languages?
I would think that it relates to the power structures behind the language communities, and to their relative size.
This can be kind of observed with English after the Norman invasion. The basic ...
- 3,973
8
votes
Should I use “double o” in Toki Pona?
Although one of the "o"s is usually dropped, you don't have to, especially if it adds a certain emphasis to something or has some poetic value in a song etc, or maybe if you're calling someone first, ...
- 81
8
votes
What verbs should be irregular in a naturalistic conlang?
The first class of verbs that is often highly irregular are the auxiliary verbs. This does not only comprise to be and to have but also the modal auxiliaries (like must, can, shall, and will). They ...
- 10.7k
8
votes
good naturalistic system for Germanic language?
A long time ago, I was involved in a project named Folkspraak to create a Germanic conlang. It was entertaining, but it did not went very far at that attempt.
Some grammatical hallmarks of Germanic ...
- 10.7k
7
votes
What are the defining traits of a Euro-centric conlang?
Besides the traits of Standard Average European given in Sparksbet's answer, another defining feature is the phonology and basis of the lexicon.
Eurocentric conlangs draw their phonology and their ...
- 10.7k
7
votes
How do languages manage to make sense with a free word order?
Apart from the morphological / grammatical angle, we can also understand meaning by context.
A mournful song sang the choir.
Except in the Land of Strange Tales, we know that choirs sing songs. ...
- 3,130
7
votes
Grammar concepts required for every conlang
The way to make sure a language is detailed enough is by putting it to use. You have to write something in the language that the language was designed for in order to be able to tell if it works. For ...
- 1,434
7
votes
What is the word “li” in Toki pona, grammatically?
Calling li a particle or predicate marker is correct and not misleading. A Toki Pona clause can have more than one predicate. li never marks a non-predicate. It also appears on every predicate except ...
- 1,640
7
votes
Is the concept of “spatial aspect” attested in any natural language?
I don't know of any languages where spatial marking is thoroughly compulsory in the same way aspect often is, however I do know of some potentially interesting cases of spatial marking. A lot of ...
- 2,337
7
votes
How to break out of the English mold when creating a conlang (specifically in regards to word modifiers)?
Perhaps you'd be interested to see how other languages do things here: https://wals.info/ .
If I do not overlook anything, then all the features you are thinking about are discussed here with examples ...
- 1,065
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