Noimi Notes: Comparisons

[qiihoskeh]

as before

Notes On A New Language Project "Noimi"

        ZComp.TXT       qiihoskeh
        2005.Jun.23     file started
        2005.Jul.30     current

        This is also similar to Noimi, but has ditransitive verboids.

COMPARISONS
===========

This chapter covers the morphosyntax specific to qualities that can be
compared (including quantities). The verboids denoting these qualities
will be called **adjectoids**.

Note:   The actant marking used here is the (A1  A3  Stem  N2  A2) variety.

Standards of Comparison
-----------------------

Kinds of Standards:

There are a number of different constructions where comparison occurs, either
explicitly or implicitly. These are:

  * explicit standard of comparison (comparative)
  * temporal standard of comparison (comparative)
  * selective standard of comparison (superlative)
  * implicit standard of comparison (or relative positive etc.)
  * excessive standard of comparison
  * satisfactive standard of comparison
  * extreme standard of comparison ("absolute" superlative)
    Note:   In addition to "the most X possible", there's also "the most X has
            been", sort of like a temporal superlative.
            [[[ I got this idea from JohnQPublik on ZBB. ]]]
  * standard of non-comparison (or absolute positive etc.)

These can be mostly classified as either real standards or ideal standards.

Real Standards:

  * The subject may be compared to an **explicit** standard. This corresponds
    to conventional comparative constructions (with positive or negative
    directionality) and equative constructions (with neutral directionality).

        Note that in English, however, the comparative _form_ sometimes
        has superlative _meaning_.

  * The subject of a **temporal** comparison is compared to its former or
    subsequent state. Since this is a special case of explicit comparison, it
    may (in general) use the same syntax, but can often be accomplished using
    the ===evolutive=== and ===devolutive=== aspects.

  * The semantics of a **selective** comparison involves the determination of
    a subset by comparing the members of some group to each other with respect
    to the quality. This corresponds to the conventional superlative.

Ideal Standards:

  * The subject may be compared to an **implicit** standard or norm determined
    by the kind of subject. This corresponds to the simple positive, negative,
    and normative use of the attribute.

  * A comparison may be made to determine if something is too much, too
    little, or within appropriate limits for a particular usage or purpose
    (which might or might not be stated explicitly), the standard depending on
    that usage or purpose. In this case, the positive form would be used as an
    **excessive**.

  * A comparison may be made to determine if something is enough for a
    particular usage or purpose (which might or might not be stated
    explicitly), the standard depending on that usage or purpose. This could
    be called the **standard of sufficiency**. The positive form is used as a
    **satisfactive** and the negative form as a satisfactive of the opposite.
    The neutral form isn't used.

  * The subject of comparison may also be described as having the attribute as
    much or as little as possible. I'm calling this the **extreme** standard
    of comparison (corresponding to conventional "absolute superlative").

        This kind of "superlative" seems to be a normative comparison to some
        theoretical maximum or minimum. I'm not sure how to represent this in
        terms of thresholds; the positive version is _at_ the upper threshold
        and the negative version is _at_ the lower threshold. Perhaps this is
        an additional form of _precision_ rather than a standard!

Absolute Qualities and Quantities:

There is an additional kind of standard: **absolute**, which would express a
measurement (e.g. 3 feet tall), or rarely, the presence of an attribute, hence
would almost always require a degree of comparison **element** and would
always be positive. Strictly speaking, this is not a standard of comparison,
but the absence of a standard.

        Note that in English, the simple form of an adjective is absolute
        when a degree of comparison is specified, but relative otherwise!

Selective Standard of Comparison:

The stem used is the basic one. The adjectoid is placed in the phrase _before_
some quantifier, which must use the _partitive_ stem. Example:

        Ina-(big)  Ina-(3)-Part-3C2  (apple)
        the biggest 3 (of the) apples

Implicit Standard of Comparison:

The basic stem is used here as well, but the adjectoid is placed in the phrase
anywhere _after_ any determiners or quantifiers. Example:

        Ina-(3)  Ina-(big)  (apple)
        3 big apples

Explicit Standard of Comparison:

The head of an explicit standard of comparison element is a type of coverb,
and is marked with SoC-.

Any element of the standard of comparison element which differs from the
corresponding element in the clause is omitted from the standard element.
However, if the head is omitted, it must be replaced by a **proverb** (that
is, a generic place-holder verboid).

Unless topical, the contrasting element of the clause goes right before the
head of the standard of comparison element, and the qualified argument (the
one containing the attribute used for comparison) goes right before that, if
not the same element.

    Morphemes:
        -Cpr    marks the attribute used for comparison
         SoC-   identifies the head of the standard of comparison element as
                such
         PV1    proverb, verboid, V=1
         PV2    proverb, verboid, V=2
         PV3    proverb, verboid, V=3

    Examples:

     1. John  3A-(tall)-Cpr  3C1.SoC-PV1  Fred
        John is taller than Fred.

     2. John  3C1.(ate)-3P  Ina-(many)-Cpr  potato  3C1.SoC-(threw)-3C2  Fred
        onion
        John ate more potatoes than Fred threw onions.
        --- each element differs ---

     3. John  Ina-(many)-Cpr  potato  3C1.(ate)-3P  Ina-SoC-(threw)-COA
        John ate more potatoes than he threw.
        --- only the verb differs ---

     4. John  3C1.(ate)-3P  Ina-(many)-Cpr  potato  3C1.SoC-PV2-COA  onion
        John ate more potatoes than (he did) onions.
        (possibly use  Ani-SoC-PV2-Inv-3C2  instead of  3C1.SoC-PV2-COA )
        --- the qualified argument differs ---

     5. 3C1.(ate)-3P  Ina-(many)-Cpr  potato  John  Ina-SoC-PV2-3C2  Fred
        John ate more potatoes than Fred (did).
        --- some other argument differs ---

     6. John  3C1.(ate)-3P  potato  Aux-(many)-Cpr  Ina-SoC-PV2-3C2  Fred
        John ate potatoes more times than Fred (did).
        --- some other argument differs, with a qualifying auxiliary ---

Satisfactive Standard of Comparison:

        Uses the same marker in the comparitive part as in the part that
        accompanies result clauses. The difference is that result clauses are
        indicative and satisfactives are subjunctive.

Excessive Standard of Comparison:

Standard of Non-comparison:

This requires a degree of comparison element.

Precision and Degree of Comparison
----------------------------------

The degree of comparison element provides a measure of how different the
compared items are, and includes both a unit of measurement and a quantifier.
Note that the unit of measurement is indefinite and that the _non-partitive_
stem of the quantifier is used.