Kalaba-X
Encyclopedia
Kalaba-X is a simple constructed language
created by the American
linguist
Kenneth L. Pike
to help with the teaching of translation
techniques.
Each sentence in Kalaba-X has a fixed structure, consisting of three sentence parts: verb
, object
, subject
, or more exactly, predicate
(affirmation or assertion of a general status fact or occurring event), object
(that indicates or restricts where the action applies or takes place, or allows qualifying it more precisely), subject
(any triggering condition under which the fact can occur, and without which the predicate would not have occurred).
Under such definition, the grammatical structure of other languages can be more easily compared between each other, using Kalaba-X as a formal intermediate language for studying the language semantic (for example, this theoretical model does not define a grammatical difference between a noun and a verb, or between a verb and an adjective, as it is found in most European languages, because most nouns or adjectives of European languages can also be a predicate by themselves).
Each of these three parts, which are linked semantically rather than grammatically, can be modified. By focusing on the semantic rather than the grammatical structure of the source or target language, this constructed language can be used as an intermediate tool for producing better translations, notably between languages that have very different grammatical structures and where the semantic is organized differently into one or more subordinated sentences.
For example, the English sentence "This picture is very beautiful." would be structured in Kalaba-X as if it were written "Beautiful very, picture this, me." where the subject (me) is explicitly given in Kalaba-X rather than being subjectively implied by the context. Under such translation, the effective semantic of the sentence is "I (find that) this picture is very beautiful." where the author of the sentence is responsible for this affirmation. The English grammar may hide the fact that the "beautiful" adjective translates the concept of "enjoying", a true verb, so a simpler Kalaba-X sentence would be better "Enjoy a lot, picture this, me." But the analysis does not stop there, because Kalaba-X features no pronouns, i.e. no ambiguous substitutes; a more exact analysis would give "Enjoy a lot, picture here, speaker."
But other translations would be possible to indicate whether the opinion is personal or admitted more generally, by adding modifiers (considered adjectives in Kalaba-X) to the subject part (considered a noun) to condition the sentence, or to the object part (also considered a noun) to extend the scope of the predicate. Adding more modifiers in Kalaba-X to the initial verb part of such sentence can make the semantic more precise by including various modes (including tense, variability, recurrence, progress, negation...) but also logical composition relations like unions, intersections and exclusions).
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
created by the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
Kenneth L. Pike
Kenneth L. Pike
Kenneth Lee Pike , also known during his life as Ken Pike, was an American linguist and anthropologist. He was the originator of the theory of tagmemics and coiner of the terms "emic" and "etic".-Life:...
to help with the teaching of translation
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
techniques.
Each sentence in Kalaba-X has a fixed structure, consisting of three sentence parts: verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
, object
Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
, subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
, or more exactly, predicate
Predicate (grammar)
There are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. Traditional grammar tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies. The other understanding of predicates is inspired from work in predicate calculus...
(affirmation or assertion of a general status fact or occurring event), object
Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
(that indicates or restricts where the action applies or takes place, or allows qualifying it more precisely), subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
(any triggering condition under which the fact can occur, and without which the predicate would not have occurred).
Under such definition, the grammatical structure of other languages can be more easily compared between each other, using Kalaba-X as a formal intermediate language for studying the language semantic (for example, this theoretical model does not define a grammatical difference between a noun and a verb, or between a verb and an adjective, as it is found in most European languages, because most nouns or adjectives of European languages can also be a predicate by themselves).
Each of these three parts, which are linked semantically rather than grammatically, can be modified. By focusing on the semantic rather than the grammatical structure of the source or target language, this constructed language can be used as an intermediate tool for producing better translations, notably between languages that have very different grammatical structures and where the semantic is organized differently into one or more subordinated sentences.
For example, the English sentence "This picture is very beautiful." would be structured in Kalaba-X as if it were written "Beautiful very, picture this, me." where the subject (me) is explicitly given in Kalaba-X rather than being subjectively implied by the context. Under such translation, the effective semantic of the sentence is "I (find that) this picture is very beautiful." where the author of the sentence is responsible for this affirmation. The English grammar may hide the fact that the "beautiful" adjective translates the concept of "enjoying", a true verb, so a simpler Kalaba-X sentence would be better "Enjoy a lot, picture this, me." But the analysis does not stop there, because Kalaba-X features no pronouns, i.e. no ambiguous substitutes; a more exact analysis would give "Enjoy a lot, picture here, speaker."
But other translations would be possible to indicate whether the opinion is personal or admitted more generally, by adding modifiers (considered adjectives in Kalaba-X) to the subject part (considered a noun) to condition the sentence, or to the object part (also considered a noun) to extend the scope of the predicate. Adding more modifiers in Kalaba-X to the initial verb part of such sentence can make the semantic more precise by including various modes (including tense, variability, recurrence, progress, negation...) but also logical composition relations like unions, intersections and exclusions).
Sources and external links
- Kalaba-X —Conlang Profile
- Pike's article on the language