Re: terminators and bilingualism

[And Rosta <a.rosta@UCLAN.AC.UK>]

Lojbab(in private mail):
> If you are still on Linguist List (I'm not) perhaps you could query whether
> any language has the circumpositions/terminators that you are discussing.
> Lots more comparative langauge expertise there than elsewhere.

OK: Ivan or I could ask.
But first could we agree among ourselves what would count as a
terminator/initiator?

As a first go, without crafting the formulation, I would suggest:

   [X   Y  Z]

where either X, Y or Z is the head of the phrase, and X must
be the first word in the phrase and Z must be last word, though
they needn't be obligatory.

Does that get to the essence of it? (Ivan? Anyone? - what do
you reckon.)

However, it occurs to me that if an XP, which is head-initial,
systematically selected a YP, which is head final, then you
would get [X [[Z] Y]]. Such an analysis is available for
Lojban terminators, and perhaps what really marks out Lojban is
the pervasiveness of the construction type.


> (And if you happen to mention Lojban, it might not hurt %^)

On the other hand, if the query came from LLG, the Lojban
URL could be included in the sig. (Or maybe I could just give
the Lojban URL parenthetically.)

--And