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by Jhsto 2400 days ago
The article notes that in some languages it is possible to form sentences by chaining appendixes to them.

An example in Finnish:

- jousta (normal form of the verb run)

- juoksen (I run)

- juoksentelen (I run around)

- juoksentelisinkohan (I wonder should I run around)

- juostaankohammekohaan (I wonder do we run)

The two later forms are very rarely used, and I have no idea whether the last form is even correct. I have some friends who insist on talking like this. Usually, people express the same things with more words, such as juoksentelisinkohan is equivalent to about:

- Mietin ., että. pitäisikö. minun. juosta. ympäriinsä.

- I wonder., that. should. my (in this context, me). run. around.

The . are to separate the words.

Yet, it would be perfectly fine to just append a question mark to juoksentelisinkohan or juostaankohammekohaan and it would be a one-word sentence. An interesting remark is that in practice the question mark is redundant in both cases, as the -ko- part in the words reduces the only interpretation of the word to be a question.

I have absolutely no idea how would one formalize all this.

1 comments

"Juostaankohammekohaan" is not right. It should probably be either "juoksemmekohan" "I wonder if we will run" or "juostaankohan" "I wonder if it will be run" (passive voice).

The frequentative forms would be "juoksentelemmekohan" and "juoksennellaankohan" respectively.