Monthly Archives: November 2020

Updating our grammatical typology

We now have the following categories in our grammatical taxonomy:

  • determinants
  • nouns
  • pronouns
  • verbs
  • prepositions and postpositions
  • determinant modifiers
  • noun modifiers, i.e. adjectives
  • adjective modifiers
  • verb modifiers, i.e. adverbs (but in a restricted sense with regard to classical grammar)
  • adverb (still in a restricted sense) modifiers

To be noted: the classical category of adverbs comprises here the following categories:

  • adjective modifiers
  • verb modifiers
  • adverb modifiers

On the category of adverb modifiers

Let’s continue to rethink the gruesome (so is it argued here) category of adverbs (in the classical sense). Let’s now turn our attention to the category of ‘adverb modifiers’. Adverbs are understood here in a restricted sense: they are either verb modifiers or proposition modifiers. In this context, we are likely to encounter adverb modifiers. In general, the adverb modifier precedes the adverb. Thus, very (‘très’) is an adverb modifier in the sequence he was eating very rarely (il mangeait très rarement’, manghjava mori raramenti).

Likewise more (‘plus’, più) is in some cases an adverb modifier. This is the case in the sequence he was drinking more frequently (‘il buvait plus fréquemment’, biia più suventi).

The case of adjective modifiers and the notion of grammatical proof

Let’s consider again the case of adjective modifiers (in classical grammar, this category of words are considered as degree adverbs). These include the following: peu, très, extrêmement, surtout, étonnamment, à peine, vraiment, assez, bien, trop, tellement, … = pocu, assai, estremamente, sopratuttu, in modu stunante, appena, propriu/propria/proprii/proprie, abbastanza, bellu/bella/belli/belle, troppu/troppa/troppi, troppe, tantu/tanta, tanti/tante, … = not very, very, extremely, especially, surprisingly, hardly, really, enough, all/very, too, so,… We have argued that this category of words are ‘adjective modifiers’, when they precede an adjective. But is such an assertion likely to be proven, or is there some form of evidence available? Grammar, like other disciplines, requires that assertions be justified, and if possible proven. The notion of proof in grammar, however, is uncommon. Let’s see if we can provide such proof or justification?

Consider the case of ‘tellement’ (so much), which we consider to be an adjective modifier when it precedes an adjective. Now, let us consider the following translations, where ‘tellement’ is used:

  • in French: il est tellement beau, ils sont tellement petits, elles est tellement belle, elles sont tellement intelligentes
  • in English: it is so beautiful, they are so small, they are so beautiful, they are so smart
  • in Corsican: hè tantu bellu, sò tanti chjuchi, hè tanta bella, sò tante intelligente (an alternative translation hè: hè cusì bellu, sò cusì chjuchi, hè cusì bella, sò cusì intelligente)
  • in Italian: è così bello, sono così piccoli, sono così belli, sono così intelligenti

It is patent here that ‘tellement’ preceding an adjective is translated in Corsican by:

  • tantu, when the adjective is singular masculine
  • tanti, when the adjective is plural masculine
  • tanta, when the adjective is singular feminine
  • tante, when the adjective is plural feminine

Thus ‘tellement’ (so much, tantu/tanti/tanta/tante), employed in this usage, i.e. preceding an adjective, accords with the adjective to which it refers. This sounds as a justification of its classification as an adjective modifier.

The status of adverbs

What are adverbs in the present grammatical taxonomy? Adverbs have a much more restrictive definition here than in their traditional definition. Adverbs in this typology are verb modifiers. Therefore, adverbs are distinct from:

  • adjective modifiers (such as peu, très, extrêmement, surtout, étonnamment, à peine, vraiment, assez, bien, trop, tellement, … = pocu, assai, estremamente, sopratuttu, in modu stunante, appena, propriu/propria/proprii/proprie, abbastanza, bellu/bella/belli/belle, troppu/troppa/troppi, troppe, tantu/tanta, tanti/tante, … = not very, very, extremely, especially, surprisingly, hardly, really, enough, all/very, too, so,…
  • proposition modifiers, which change the meaning of a proposition

The status of adjective modifiers

What is the status of adjective modifiers (tant, tout juste, un rien, un tantinet, très, extrêmement, … = so much, just a little, a little, a little, very, extremely, …) in the present grammatical typology? Adjectives are defined as noun modifiers. So adjective modifiers would be modifiers of noun modifiers? This sounds intriguing. In reality, we do not have the concept of ‘modifiers of modifiers’. In fact, we have the following rules:

  • a verb modifier followed by a verb is a verb
  • a determinant modifier followed by a determinant is a determinant
  • and generally speaking, a modifier of an X followed by an X is an X (where X is a given grammatical type)
    So a noun modifier followed by a noun is a noun, i.e. an adjective followed by a noun is a noun. For example: ‘un très beau livre’ (a very nice book), where ‘very’ is an adjective modifier, ‘nice’ is an adjective, i.e. a noun modifier, and ‘book’ is a noun.
    Hence finally, ‘an adjective modifier is a modifier of a noun modifier’ reads as follows: an adjective modifier is a modifier of [noun modifier].

Grammatical typology again

What are the characteristics of the resulting grammatical typology? We now have the following categories:

  • determinants
  • nouns
  • pronouns
  • verbs
  • prepositions and postpositions
  • determinant modifiers
  • noun modifiers, i.e. adjectives
  • adjective modifiers
  • verb modifiers, i.e. adverbs but in a restricted sense

The status of adjectives

What is the status of adjectives in the present grammatical typology? The notion of modifier is central to this taxonomy. Thus, the adjective is a noun modifier. In the expression ‘the blue sky’, ‘blue’ is a modifier of the noun ‘sky’. The definition of the adjective as a noun modifier is quite in line with the definition given for example by Merriam-Webster: ‘a word belonging to one of the major form classes in any of numerous languages and typically serving as a modifier of a noun to denote a quality of the thing named, to indicate its quantity or extent, or to specify a thing as distinct from something else’.

The case of new words for machine translation

Another case that argues for the use of rule-based translation, i.e. human-like, is the following. Frequently we come across a new word, a word we have never seen before. More often than not, a human knows how to translate it. Because there are rules that allow to translate a word from a given language into another language, even if we do not know the meaning of this last word. For example, ‘anthranilic acid’ can be translated precisely as ‘anthranilic acid’ by a human, even if he has no knowledge of the acid in question. For this type of ability to translate new words encountered, the statistical method is not adequate and the machine translator must have the ability to determine (i) the grammatical nature of the word in question; (ii) translate the new word encountered based on the morphological rules for translating words of this grammatical type from one language to another. An AGI, capable of translating, should possess this type of ability.