Long message à traduire de l'anglais => français. Merci !
Posted: 04 May 2004 19:36
Bonjour à toutes et tous,
Je suis inscrit sur une liste de discussion anglaise "Yahoo! Groups".
Je comprends la plupart des messages mais pour le message que je vais vous donner, j'ai un peu de mal à comprendre ce qui est marqué, surtout que c'est un message important, et comprendre les "grandes lignes", comprendre le sujet du message seulement ne me suffit pas.
Si vous pouvez m'aider à traduire ce message, d'autres suivront plus tard mais sans abuser de votre aide.
Je vous remercie beaucoup toutes et tous (le message suit, il est un peu long je l'admets, faites votre possible)
Bonne soirée.
"We have barely begun scratching the surface on the list discussion
so far about the linguistic nature of Yahgan.
Here is a preview (modified Bridges orthography and forms):
Case and Number marking:
Yahgan is a case-marking language. Case marking on nouns, pronouns,
and participles is quite extensive, but is for nonsubjects only.
Subjects are pronominally coreferenced on the verb.
Ex. Hai kvndaiananima ha-ku:ta:nude:
Here Hai is first person pronominal subject, without any case
marking of its own (but generally placed leftwards of most other
material in the predication). It is "copied" coreferentially by the
prefix ha- on the verb. kvndaiananima is object base kv- for third
persons, -ndaian- is a plural marker for nouns, and -ima is an
objective case marker (linker -an- is not analyzable synchronically,
but we will get into that later- there is method to the madness).
ku:ta is Yahgan for "word,speech,language" (also Bridges gu:ta).
Suffixed by -an- verbalizer it becomes ku:ta:na "to speak, talk
(literally to be in a state of speech)". Finally there is the past
tense marker (v)de:
The entire sentence then is: 1sg.subj 3-plural-obj 1subj-talk-
stative-past or I them-to (I)speak-past, or "I spoke/said to them".
Because this is a case marking language the object kvndaianima could
be put on the other side of the verb as well- generally objects are
fronted when other material is put after the verb- such as quotes.
The fully inflected object with case can be expanded quite a bit-
this includes number (singular, two types of dual, and plural),
collectivity versus particularity, definiteness, and addition of
more grammatical and more spatial case markings.
Yahgan objects can thus be quite precise in their specificity.
Agent subjects are not normally inflected for case, but can be
expanded for number similarly to the objects.
Subject number (ambiguously with number of action) can also be
marked on the verb. Number marking can be achieved a variety of
ways: there are productive singular, duals, an approximate trial,
and plural suffixes (several types) and a term for zero. There are
also in many cases distinct singular and plural verbs covering the
same semantic sense, but with different inherent number. Duals can
usually be made from the singulars here by addition of the dual
suffixes, and though plurals could theoretically be made from these
singulars by suffixation, I'm guessing that rhetorically it would be
more usual to use the discrete plural forms.
In some sets the plural form is the source, and singulars (and
suffixally derived duals after them) are made by attaching a
singular affix.
There are also a handful of verb root pairs which seem to indicate a
once productive infixational process, which may have had number
marking function. It is unknown if this was a live process in the
linguistic ancestor language, or if it was borrowed fossilized from
another language.
Inherent verb number will be dealt with in the verb section.
Finally there are actual lexical numerals which can be used
modificationally- u:koali "one", kvmbai(b(a)i) "two", and
mvtan "three" more specifically, and a larger set which are less
specific (as in English "a couple" doesn't mean literally a pair
anymore) which some scholars (who didn't like non-European world-
views) have "forced" to do service as specific numerals. The
parentheses around kvmbai(b(a)i)) reflect different forms found in
different contexts. Note that this system DOES parallel that of
normal inflectional number marking in the language- zero, singular,
more than one dual, @trial, and plurals. In other words the lexical
and grammatical numbers are "in synch"."
Je suis inscrit sur une liste de discussion anglaise "Yahoo! Groups".
Je comprends la plupart des messages mais pour le message que je vais vous donner, j'ai un peu de mal à comprendre ce qui est marqué, surtout que c'est un message important, et comprendre les "grandes lignes", comprendre le sujet du message seulement ne me suffit pas.
Si vous pouvez m'aider à traduire ce message, d'autres suivront plus tard mais sans abuser de votre aide.
Je vous remercie beaucoup toutes et tous (le message suit, il est un peu long je l'admets, faites votre possible)
Bonne soirée.
"We have barely begun scratching the surface on the list discussion
so far about the linguistic nature of Yahgan.
Here is a preview (modified Bridges orthography and forms):
Case and Number marking:
Yahgan is a case-marking language. Case marking on nouns, pronouns,
and participles is quite extensive, but is for nonsubjects only.
Subjects are pronominally coreferenced on the verb.
Ex. Hai kvndaiananima ha-ku:ta:nude:
Here Hai is first person pronominal subject, without any case
marking of its own (but generally placed leftwards of most other
material in the predication). It is "copied" coreferentially by the
prefix ha- on the verb. kvndaiananima is object base kv- for third
persons, -ndaian- is a plural marker for nouns, and -ima is an
objective case marker (linker -an- is not analyzable synchronically,
but we will get into that later- there is method to the madness).
ku:ta is Yahgan for "word,speech,language" (also Bridges gu:ta).
Suffixed by -an- verbalizer it becomes ku:ta:na "to speak, talk
(literally to be in a state of speech)". Finally there is the past
tense marker (v)de:
The entire sentence then is: 1sg.subj 3-plural-obj 1subj-talk-
stative-past or I them-to (I)speak-past, or "I spoke/said to them".
Because this is a case marking language the object kvndaianima could
be put on the other side of the verb as well- generally objects are
fronted when other material is put after the verb- such as quotes.
The fully inflected object with case can be expanded quite a bit-
this includes number (singular, two types of dual, and plural),
collectivity versus particularity, definiteness, and addition of
more grammatical and more spatial case markings.
Yahgan objects can thus be quite precise in their specificity.
Agent subjects are not normally inflected for case, but can be
expanded for number similarly to the objects.
Subject number (ambiguously with number of action) can also be
marked on the verb. Number marking can be achieved a variety of
ways: there are productive singular, duals, an approximate trial,
and plural suffixes (several types) and a term for zero. There are
also in many cases distinct singular and plural verbs covering the
same semantic sense, but with different inherent number. Duals can
usually be made from the singulars here by addition of the dual
suffixes, and though plurals could theoretically be made from these
singulars by suffixation, I'm guessing that rhetorically it would be
more usual to use the discrete plural forms.
In some sets the plural form is the source, and singulars (and
suffixally derived duals after them) are made by attaching a
singular affix.
There are also a handful of verb root pairs which seem to indicate a
once productive infixational process, which may have had number
marking function. It is unknown if this was a live process in the
linguistic ancestor language, or if it was borrowed fossilized from
another language.
Inherent verb number will be dealt with in the verb section.
Finally there are actual lexical numerals which can be used
modificationally- u:koali "one", kvmbai(b(a)i) "two", and
mvtan "three" more specifically, and a larger set which are less
specific (as in English "a couple" doesn't mean literally a pair
anymore) which some scholars (who didn't like non-European world-
views) have "forced" to do service as specific numerals. The
parentheses around kvmbai(b(a)i)) reflect different forms found in
different contexts. Note that this system DOES parallel that of
normal inflectional number marking in the language- zero, singular,
more than one dual, @trial, and plurals. In other words the lexical
and grammatical numbers are "in synch"."