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Latest revision as of 09:16, 30 June 2014
Notes in square brackets of whether each feature is possible in Lojban.
Haspelmath (2001) lists further features characteristic of European languages (but also found elsewhere):
- verb-initial order in yes/no questions
- optionally possible in Lojban
- comparative inflection of adjectives (e.g. English bigger)
- optionally possible in Lojban
- conjunction A, B and C
- no, needs extra ke ... ke'e brackets for nesting, the default is "A and B and C"
- syncretism of comitative and instrumental cases (e.g. English with my friends vs. with a knife)
- terrible polysemy, but comitative is vague enough to be used instead of instrumental, so yes, possible
- suppletivism in second vs. two
- of course not, it's stupid and has mostly historical explanations
- no distinction between alienable (e.g. legal property) and inalienable (e.g. body part) possession
- possible with pe
- no distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns ("we and you" vs. "we and not you")
- not possible yet, always distinguishable, probably the definition of SAE "we" should be "I and other people, optionally including the listener". Experimental mi'ai is a possible solution.
- no productive usage of reduplication
- yes, not used
- topic and focus expressed by intonation and word order
- possilbe with intonation; possible by word order, which is probably an universal
- word order subject–verb–object
- yes, by default
- only one gerund, preference for finite subordinate clauses
- well, one gerund is definitely possible
- specific "neither-nor" construction
- not very specific, a part of a neat conjunctive system
- phrasal adverbs (e.g. English already, still, not yet)
- can be seen as advebrs
- tendency towards replacement of past tense by the perfect
- pragmatically possible as a tendency, not as a rule