Post by Auburn on Apr 28, 2015 22:06:55 GMT
I am loving the flood of texts that's coming in from you guys. Already the library is starting to fill up; it's exciting! 
As the total noob that I am I wanted to give some feedback on how the experience feels so far, from the point of view of somebody (a reader) totally unlearned. I find I really enjoy notes like these:
They really get into the specifics of what transformations/additions the word takes. I find the more detail of this sort the annotations have, the more I'm able to grasp the sentence. But there are some details that don't help much, like for example in this word from Aerlinn Aerennel:
ulomui - Sure, there are a lot of annotations, but it's hard to decode the word from them. I find that a general definition of what an adjective is, or what a noun phrase is, seem unnecessary. And other important questions aren't answers, for example, why the "-ui" ending? (actually, in this particular case I know why ^^ but that's only from previous exposure. at face value this word would be confusing, i think)
So ...more of the right kind of notes, and less of the superfluous notes perhaps?
mellen - This one is much better. I like that it denotes that it's a verb up top, then the next note tells you what kind of verb. The notes down below also tell me the root is "mel-". But one thing that isn't answered is ...why the "-len" ending? From the notes, I'd have to ask myself if the Passive Participle ending is "-len" (equivalent to the English "-ed"?).
Notice, though, that if the root word "mel-" had been entered via the root word column, the dictionary entry would also tell me it's a verb, so there would be no need for the Verb annotation below. The same can probably be said for other parts of speech. So maybe we can take off the descriptions from the basic parts of speech? That way we have less redundancy in notes.
And maybe just making the morpho notes more specific if they can be. For example, the Passive Participle note could say that the "-ren/-len" ending is applied. Or even if there are multiple options for what ending it could take, those could be listed. That way, it doesn't pin the word down to one ending but tells the reader "it will probably have one of these 3 endings". From there, the Notes field below could explain why that ending was chosen, and so forth.
Something like that....
These are all just passive thoughts/ideas.
And I'm being hypercritical and nitpicky - just to try and help refine things. ^^
Overall, these entries are rather clear.
As the total noob that I am I wanted to give some feedback on how the experience feels so far, from the point of view of somebody (a reader) totally unlearned. I find I really enjoy notes like these:Perfective Participle The perfect participle is easily spotted because of the suffix '-iel' that goes with it. It's made with the '-iel' suffix and either I-Affection on the root-vowel or lengthening the root vowel. The perfective participle has two uses in Sindarin: The first is to make the verb into an adverb that would modify another verb, like "He runs as though chasing immortality." The second is to start a dependent clause for an action that has been done before the action in the main sentence, like "Having eaten dinner, I went to bed."
1st Plural Exclusive The distinction between Exclusive and Inclusive 1st person pronouns only exists in Doriath. Everyone else just uses the Exclusive pronouns. This pronoun has the root 'me' for independent pronouns and '-m' for suffixes. It means 'we'.
3rd Plural This verb has the suffix '-r' on it, which means that 'they' or a plural noun is doing the action.
1st Plural Exclusive The distinction between Exclusive and Inclusive 1st person pronouns only exists in Doriath. Everyone else just uses the Exclusive pronouns. This pronoun has the root 'me' for independent pronouns and '-m' for suffixes. It means 'we'.
3rd Plural This verb has the suffix '-r' on it, which means that 'they' or a plural noun is doing the action.
They really get into the specifics of what transformations/additions the word takes. I find the more detail of this sort the annotations have, the more I'm able to grasp the sentence. But there are some details that don't help much, like for example in this word from Aerlinn Aerennel:
ulomui - Sure, there are a lot of annotations, but it's hard to decode the word from them. I find that a general definition of what an adjective is, or what a noun phrase is, seem unnecessary. And other important questions aren't answers, for example, why the "-ui" ending? (actually, in this particular case I know why ^^ but that's only from previous exposure. at face value this word would be confusing, i think)
So ...more of the right kind of notes, and less of the superfluous notes perhaps?
mellen - This one is much better. I like that it denotes that it's a verb up top, then the next note tells you what kind of verb. The notes down below also tell me the root is "mel-". But one thing that isn't answered is ...why the "-len" ending? From the notes, I'd have to ask myself if the Passive Participle ending is "-len" (equivalent to the English "-ed"?).
Notice, though, that if the root word "mel-" had been entered via the root word column, the dictionary entry would also tell me it's a verb, so there would be no need for the Verb annotation below. The same can probably be said for other parts of speech. So maybe we can take off the descriptions from the basic parts of speech? That way we have less redundancy in notes.
And maybe just making the morpho notes more specific if they can be. For example, the Passive Participle note could say that the "-ren/-len" ending is applied. Or even if there are multiple options for what ending it could take, those could be listed. That way, it doesn't pin the word down to one ending but tells the reader "it will probably have one of these 3 endings". From there, the Notes field below could explain why that ending was chosen, and so forth.
Something like that....
These are all just passive thoughts/ideas.
And I'm being hypercritical and nitpicky - just to try and help refine things. ^^
Overall, these entries are rather clear.
