Let’s commence with the first T.A. sentence and its English translation:
“The father and the brother are talking.”
Looking through all the other examples, the distinguishing feature of this one is “and” – a
conjunction that isn’t present in any of the other translations. The plus sign, in turn, appears to
be absent from all of the other T.A. sentences. Ergo, it is quite safe to assume that the plus sign
denotes “and” in this particular context. One could argue that this is intuitive, but I’d prefer to
employ my beloved reductionism when producing thorough solutions.
Now, let’s turn our attention to the symbols – we see three of them, excluding the parentheses
and the plus. Two of them appear to be of the same breed – the ones seemingly attached by
the plus sign, and contained within the brackets. Let’s say that they are the father and the
brother symbols – this would make a lot of sense, noting the English translation.
“The father and the brother…”
So, logically, the first symbol denotes “father”, and the second expresses “brother”. One would
intuitively reason, however, that seven symbols cannot equal “father”, and three cannot equal
“brother”. That would create rather a convoluted language – imagine having to write “cousin”.
Egad!
Well, it has been dubbed a breed of algebra – let’s simplify.
becomes
, which makes sense, as it is the opposite of
(the meaning of
which has, in one way or another, been pre-determined: we can safely state that
is
feminine). Examples five and eight both contain only the feminine form; both contain only the
symbol. Similarly,
simplifies to
. So,
and
are masculine symbols.
and
its lowercase variant are feminine symbols. However, if they aren’t placed together, they’ve
no context – they are simply “large man”, “small man”, “large woman”, and “small woman”
respectively. When one places them one of them amongst the others and cancels, one can
chart the relationships present.
is a family – there is a woman, and two children. Cancel out, and you get a man
– obviously, he’s a father.
Here, we’re speaking of only an adult man and an adult woman – the woman cancels
out. So, this particular male is her husband or other romantic partner.
With this done, we begin to understand larger components of examples three, six, and seven.
Looking back at the first example, however, we’ve still left one component unaddressed – the
final symbol, given in superscript. Everything else having been assigned a meaning, we can
assume that a superscript
means “are talking”.
So, thus far:
1. Subjects composed of more than one symbol are placed in parentheses.
2.
denotes “father” (we cannot yet assume it to denote everything masculine, as we have
not seen it employed in any context other than a familial one).
3.
denotes “mother” in a familial context, and a feminine entity in any other scenario.
4. Verbs are expressed in superscript (note examples one through seven).
5. Objects are placed behind the equality sign (note examples three through seven).
6. The relationships present between people are charted; by cancelling, one can extract the
current subject and learn about his or her position in relation to the others.
Looking at examples three, four, and five, we can establish that when something is not involved
in a particular action, a minus sign is placed directly in front of it to showcase that.
are children without parents.
We can now completely understand examples one and three. We need only remember
negations’ being expressed with a minus sign to understand example six.
An obvious observation:
(superscript) = “are writing”
Let’s look at examples two and seven (those pertaining to giants). Example seven is particularly
useful at first.
Thus far, we know most of what is going on
here. We have the
= [object] pattern, and yet, two items have been added. The
first is an adjective. This sentence, unlike any of the others, describes its subject – the giant is
wicked. This leads to the fact that adjectives are placed within the set of parentheses
encompassing the noun in question, the noun, of course, retaining its own set of brackets.
“
” = “eat”. Finally, too, we can understand this case of “-t”.
[subject][verb]
“The wicked giant ate the parents.”
The “-t” denotes past tense. Examples four, five, and seven are all in the past tense; in all of
them, we find “-t”. A rather large hint to this is given with examples two and eight – in example
two, working without haste (or slowly) leads you to lose time; in example eight, if you are not in
a hurry, then you lose time.
The second example and the placement of “-t” within it points us to yet another conclusion –
adverbs follow verbs in a manner similar to the adjectives’ following nouns.
Four other items remain: the coefficient n, the subscript, the radical symbol, and the
.
Examples four and five, when examined simultaneously, are large indicators to the fact that the
subscript denotes the person – first, second, or third. “Us” is first-person plural, “you” is
second-person singular (in the case of the fourth example), and “she”, of course, is third-person
singular.
The coefficient n denotes plural entities, as depicted in examples four and two.
becomes “we” or “us” with the aid of n.
1
is “I”; it
The radical symbol denotes passive voice. This is quite easy to note, as the fifth example is a
very awkward presentation of the aforementioned.
Now, for the
- it is the masculine entity. At first, one could guess that it is neutral by dint of
“giant” being
. However, we must remember that this language was the product of a
patriarchal society. It isn’t until the first question of Assignment One, however, that this is
confirmed – the first question includes
this would mean “he”.
3.
Logically, if we previously had
3 meaning
“she”,
To the questions, then!
Assignment One – Translate into English.
9.
Only a subject and a verb is present here.
is the masculine form; we’ve third-person singular.
So, “he”; immediately, we see “loves”. We then see “not is loved” (this is translated literally).
We can rearrange and paraphrase this to form “He loves, but is not loved.”
Translation: “He loves, but is not loved.”
“He is in unrequited love.”
10.
Cancelling out, we get a small female. She’s in a familial context, so she’s either a daughter or a
sister, with the given symbols. Simplifying the latter two summands, we get a mother and a
father. As such, we can assume her to be a daughter. She’s described as “not talking”. I
actually missed the fact that this should connote her being mute – I termed her “silent”.
The “+t” in this particular position should indicate the future tense.
So, we have “The mute daughter will write ____ the father and mother.”
Examining the fourth example, we see that the correct insert would be “about”. Do not assume
in this scenario – do not reason that the affinity typically present between children and parents
might lead the mute daughter, who otherwise could not communicate with her father and
mother, to write to them. This preposition has not been introduced. Regardless of the
circumstances, she is writing about the father and mother.
Translation: “The mute daughter will write about the father and mother.”
11.
So, immediately, we’ve “you” in the feminine. We know that all of this is in the past tense.
Here, it is important to remember that when the t [preceded by either a plus or a minus sign] is
given in superscript, it means “quickly” or “slowly” depending upon the sign.
Translation: You (feminine) worked quickly and silently.
12.
So, we have the passive voice – positions are thus reversed. We can assume that this is a sister
because the only other mentioned relative is a brother.
Translation: The letter was eaten by the hungry sister.
Assignment Two – Write in T.A.
13. “It wasn’t about them that my husband and I (say: I and the husband) talked.”
[Subject][verb] – t = -[object]
The minus sign will be placed before the object, as the couple did speak, but did not speak
about the object.
Assume the “I” to be feminine.
Assume masculine – “them” is the third-person plural.
“It wasn’t about them that I and the husband talked.”
14. “The people are working reluctantly.”
[Subject][verb][adverb]
So, “people” – we don’t assume masculine in this case.
“greater than person”.
is “giant” – obviously, that’s
is “person” without subscript, and masculine with subscript.
“People” being the plural of “person”, we get
.
15. “The good widow loves the unemployed dwarf.”
([Subject][adjective])[verb] = [object][adjective]
So, a widow is a woman without a husband who had a husband.
Recall “orphans”:
16. You (pl.) will be talked about.
Recall the notes on subscript.
This is “you” (id est, second-person), masculine, plural.
Retain passive voice.