20.
Mea ké kuepaq jí
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I'm one of the chapters
Conversation
Jadı!
Em… nho, mea ké kuepaq jí. Kuepaq kọguheı jí dâ.
Ose, hóı súq, jü luı jaq guaı hóa! Ꝡa he sha joe há pó Tóaqzu, châ kú báq ge’ẹsıom puı nha.
Jıe hıa súq Kóıtıeq móq? Cho súq sóq hí kaıse po Kóıtıeq móq? Ma chum sı súq ké gẹchuao bẹdao?
Dua jí, ꝡá jua, ꝡá keoı báq kue há. Kéo jua púı seq hú raı tî ké jıaq amabo dá?
De ké chaq suqbo ba.
— jıbı Kọ́guheı
Vocabulary
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| kuepaq | ▯ is a chapter |
| kọnumber | ▯ is number-th |
| joe | ▯ is skilled at lá |
| puı | number: many |
| jıe | ▯ finds that ꝡá |
| hıa | what/how is ▯? |
| sóq X | X the most |
| chuao | ▯ is a window |
| dao | ▯ is information |
| jua | ▯ is strange |
| jıaq | ▯ is a world |
| áma | ▯ is us (me+you+them) |
| amabo | ▯ is ours |
Predicatizers
Some Toaq verbs consume a following noun and then act like a one-slot verb. Such verbs are called predicatizers.
(The logic behind this name is that logicians call verbs predicates, and so a predicatizer turns the following noun into a predicate.)
For example, po noun means “▯ is of / is associated with noun.” It expresses a pretty general relation between the eventual subject and the predicatized noun.
po jí
▯ is mineFıeq jí sá po Tóaqzu.
I make some Toaq stuff.Po báq dıu ní kue. (= Bẹdıu ní kue)
This book is of (about) science.
Predicatizers don’t bind a variable. After saying sá po Tóaqzu, we can’t refer back to it with pó. Instead, pó noun is short for báq po noun. You often see pó used as a way to inexactly refer to a noun, meaning “stuff about X” or “things involving X”.
Dua jí pó Ísıkuızu.
I know Ithkuil things.
Another useful predicatizer is seq noun, which means “▯ is something other than noun.” (It’s basically bu eq ▯ noun in predicatizer form.)
seq báq kıachaq
▯ is not a MondayTú choaq seq jí nä, chum geı hóa sá chea.
Every guest but me is wearing a hat.
This last sentence shows that predicatizers can be used as adjectives, too.
Predicatizers and scope
Predicatizers make a tiny scope island. You can think of po tú gua as a verb meaning “▯ is of each country”, rather than its tú applying a “for each country X…” to the whole clause it’s in.
Some party (that's) of-every-country caused some commotion.
The po constrains the scope of the tú, and so this sentence doesn’t mean anything like: “for each country X, some party-of-X caused some commotion.”
Masses, mea, and mem
It’s easy to confuse plural constants with “words that mean a group.” The word mea can say something is among a plurality, but it doesn’t know anything about the parts we might see if we look “inside” the noun.
For example: if múaome refers to some forest(s), then tú mea múaome means “each of the forests”. It doesn’t mean “each of the trees”! A forest is an example of a mass — as far as plurality goes, it’s one thing, even though it has parts on the inside.
This may seem obvious, but the same applies to words like ké poqme “the group of people”, where it’s a far easier mistake to make. The phrase tú mea ké poqme means “every (group) among the groups of people.” It does not mean “every person in the group.”
To refer to parts that make up groups, there’s the predicatizer mem noun, which means “▯ is among the parts forming noun”. So tú mem ké poqme refers to “every person in the group” and tú mem ké muaome refers to “every tree in the forest.”
“Among” with mea
The predicatizer mea noun means “▯ is among noun”:
mea ké kuepaq
▯ is among the chaptersMea ké kuepaq jí.
I am among the chapters.
An especially useful construction is: article + mea + noun. It lets us say things like “some of these”, “each of the”, “many of those”, and so on.
Mala noaq jí sá mea ké kuepaq.
I’ve read some of the chapters.Zao jí tú mea ní laı.
I know all of these letters.
Distributivity
For many verbs, there is no difference between verb nhána and verb tú mea nhána. “The children are happy” means nothing more than that each child is happy.
Jaı ké deo.
The children are happy.Jaı tú mea ké deo.
Each of the children is happy.
Such verbs are called distributive. But not all verbs are distributive. Consider the following pair of sentences:
Reı ké rua ké pıo.
The flowers surround the rock.Reı tú mea ké rua ké pıo.
Each of the flowers surrounds the rock.
The second sentence doesn’t make a lot of sense. “Surrounding the rock” is something the flowers do together. We say that reı is non-distributive, at least in its subject.
Superlatives with sóq
The word sóq has the same grammar as kú and béı from lesson 14.
A sentence containing sóq X means: “X is what (rest of sentence) the most.”
Cho sóq nháo ní lua.
She liked this story the most (more than anyone else likes it).Cho nháo sóq ní lua.
She liked this story the most (more than other stories).
These particles are called focus particles. Here are some other useful ones:
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| kú X | X (is what…) |
| béı X | X (not Y!) |
| tó X | only X |
| máo X | also X |
| júaq X | even X |
| shúq X | merely X |
| sóq X | X the most |
| súı X | X the least |
| séu X | X if nothing else |
| cúom X | f*$%ing X |
Eek! Don’t tell anyone I taught you that last one.