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how much agglutination

by adrianlfc9, March 17, 2013

Messages: 13

Language: English

adrianlfc9 (User's profile) March 17, 2013, 9:02:03 PM

how much affixes can be written in one word, i have a few examples i would like answers for

bonkantemablubirdegido

would that word mean 'the offspring of a large blue bird that tends to sing well'?

bon-kant-ema-blu-bird-eg-ido

or would that be put in seperate words? because i know it would be a little difficult to say a word like that..

also, to say a word like 'not so bad' could you say maletabona or malboneta? or is there a different way to say that?

edoardo (User's profile) March 17, 2013, 9:54:02 PM

adrianlfc9:how much affixes can be written in one word
In theory there is no formal limit about how many words you can put together, but - as far as I know - it's not considered good style to abuse that.

adrianlfc9:bonkantemablubirdegido

would that word mean 'the offspring of a large blue bird that tends to sing well'?

bon-kant-ema-blu-bird-eg-ido

or would that be put in seperate words? because i know it would be a little difficult to say a word like that..
I think that that's grammatically correct, though in real life one would most likely say something like "ido de granda bonkantema blubirdo".

Tempodivalse (User's profile) March 18, 2013, 5:26:10 AM

As a general rule, I would not recommend using agglutination if you are using more than 3 roots together. (Exceptions are well-established compounds such as "malsanulejo".) If the word consists of more than 3 roots, then you probably should just modify the noun with adjectives instead. It is easier to write, easier to read, and easier to understand.
also, to say a word like 'not so bad' could you say maletabona or malboneta? or is there a different way to say that?
"Malboneta" actually means "slightly bad", which is the opposite of what you're looking for. "Not so bad" is best translated as "nemalbona" or perhaps "ne aĉa".

J_Marc (User's profile) March 18, 2013, 7:37:55 AM

Agree with the other two. Avoid or use with caution in general use, especially talking to people. Maybe save it for a fun Jabberwocky-style poem?

adrianlfc9:also, to say a word like 'not so bad' could you say maletabona or malboneta? or is there a different way to say that?

Ŝ: Ĉu vespermanĝo estis bongusta?
L: Karulo, la hepato kaj ĉepo ja ne gustis malbone.

Ŝ: How was dinner, babe?
L: Honey, the liver and onions tonight was not so bad at all.

'Ne malbone' or something similar should get you to the finish line in most cases.

lobo_xx (User's profile) March 18, 2013, 10:39:04 AM

J_Marc:Agree with the other two. Avoid or use with caution in general use, especially talking to people. Maybe save it for a fun Jabberwocky-style poem?

adrianlfc9:also, to say a word like 'not so bad' could you say maletabona or malboneta? or is there a different way to say that?

Ŝ: Ĉu vespermanĝo estis bongusta?
L: Karulo, la hepato kaj ĉepo ja ne gustis malbone.

Ŝ: How was dinner, babe?
L: Honey, the liver and onions tonight was not so bad at all.

'Ne malbone' or something similar should get you to the finish line in most cases.
Hi,

-et and -eg (as far as I know) ar suffixes; so they're at the end of the root (bonega, malboneta).

lobo

Kirilo81 (User's profile) March 18, 2013, 12:11:51 PM

blubirdo can not mean "a blue bird", but only a special kind of bird with salient blue color (cf. blackbird vs. a black bird).
In the same way, BTW, fiŝkapti doesn't mean "to catch a fish" but "to fish" (with or without catching fishes actually).

So, there a certain limitiations to agglutination.

adrianlfc9 (User's profile) March 18, 2013, 10:32:35 PM

thank you for the help, i didnt really want to go crazy with agglutinating, but it is nice to know the limits

Bruso (User's profile) March 21, 2013, 5:01:17 PM

David Jordan (in "Colloquial Esperanto" ) gives a contrived but amusing example of agglutination gone mad:

Oranĝkantonpafillimigaktivulmalamanto

(Orange County gun control activist hater)

ridulo.gif

antoniomoya (User's profile) March 21, 2013, 7:00:21 PM

"Eksferindustrimanlaboristineto" is another one.

(eks-fer-industri-man-laboristin-et-o)

Amike.

pdenisowski (User's profile) March 23, 2013, 12:59:28 PM

My feeling is to agglutinate when the morphemes represent a specific object rather than a description of that object.

For example, I'm always a little confused when I see something like this in English :

Large party room

is this a large room for parties (of any size) or a room specifically for large parties (and not for smaller ones)?

In Esperanto I would be able to distinguish between them by saying

Granda festĉambro
Grandfestĉambro (or perhaps even grandfesta ĉambro)

Amike,

Paul

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