Received: from VMS.DC.LSOFT.COM (vms.dc.lsoft.com [205.186.43.2]) by locke.ccil.org (8.6.9/8.6.10) with ESMTP id NAA02447 for ; Thu, 30 Nov 1995 13:13:29 -0500 Message-Id: <199511301813.NAA02447@locke.ccil.org> Received: from PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (205.186.43.4) by VMS.DC.LSOFT.COM (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.0a) with SMTP id C0FF517B ; Thu, 30 Nov 1995 13:03:50 -0500 Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 10:03:05 -0800 Reply-To: "Peter L. Schuerman" Sender: Lojban list From: "Peter L. Schuerman" Subject: CONLANG: languages that do without comparatives (fwd) X-To: Lojban List To: John Cowan Status: OR X-From-Space-Date: Thu Nov 30 13:13:31 1995 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU This reminded me of some of the things we'd been discussing... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 07:45:39 +0600 From: ocls@SIBYLLINE.COM To: conlang@diku.dk Subject: CONLANG: languages that do without comparatives I would be interested to know what languages do without comparatives -- I had assumed they were, loosely speaking, semantic universals. The closest thing I know to "no comparatives" is the Kumeyaay languages, which has been said to be without them. But if you ask a Kumeyaay speaker what he or she would say to express the concept that Bill is taller than Tom, you will get the following construction: Bill is tall; Tom is tall; Bill wins. Suzette Haden Elgin