The International Auxiliary Language Esperanto: Grammar & Commentary. George Cox
predikato).
34. The Predicate can furthermore be precisely defined by an adverb or a noun (or a word used as a noun) governed by a preposition. This serves to show the object of the act and circumstances surrounding it, as:—Arturo batis Georgon per sia pugno = Arthur struck George with his fist.
35. A noun can be more precisely defined by the addition of another noun or word used as a noun, as:—Eduardo, reĝo de Anglujo = Edward, King of England. This is called "apposition" (apozicio).
36. To every noun can be added adjectives or participles, which also can be defined by other nouns, as:—Homo mortiginta sian patrinon estas granda krimulo = A man who has murdered (having murdered) his mother is a great criminal. An adjective added, without any intervening word, to a noun is termed "qualifying," in order to distinguish it from an adjective (called a "predicative" adjective) having the verb esti (expressed or understood) between it and the noun, as:—Homo bona = A good man (qualifying). La homo estas bona = The man is good (predicative). (See remarks on adjectives, par. 108.)
DEFINITIONS (Difinoj).
37. A word consists of one or more syllables or distinct sounds, and has a definite meaning.
38. A root is an incomplete word conveying only an idea. It may consist of one or more syllables, but requires one or more letters to form it into a word.
39. Words in Esperanto may be divided into four classes: Primary, Simple, Compound, and Foreign.
(a). A Primary word is one which requires no additional letters to give it a distinct meaning (see list of Primary Words, Part V).
(b). A Simple word is one formed by adding a grammatical termination to a single root, or to a primary word (which then becomes a root), with or without suffixes or prefixes.
Examples.—Bon-a = Good. Ĉirkaŭ-i = To surround. Antaŭ-ul-o = A predecessor. Dis-sem-i = To scatter. Mal-san-ul-ejo = An infirmary.
(c). A Compound word is one formed by adding a grammatical termination to two or more roots, or to a primary word and a root, with or without suffixes or prefixes. Any of the component parts may be complete words, if euphony requires it.
Examples.—Bon-intenc-a = Well-meaning. Super-natur-a = Supernatural. Antaŭ-vid-i = To foresee. Ĉas-o-ŝtel-ist-o = A poacher. Ĉas-gard-ist-o = A gamekeeper. Vapor-ŝipo = A steamship. Griz-har-a = Grey-haired. Super-akv-eg-o = A deluge.
(d). A Foreign word is one common to most languages, being derived from the same root.
Examples.—Teatr-o = Theatre. Teatr-a = Theatrical. Geologi-o = Geology. Geologi-a = Geological.
FORMATION OF WORDS (Vortfarado).
40. To show the manner in which words are formed in Esperanto, it will perhaps be better first to do so in Dr. Zamenhof’s own words, as given on page 248 of his "Fundamenta Krestomatio." He says:—
"I arranged a complete dismemberment of ideas into independent words, so that the whole language, instead of being words in various grammatical forms, consists solely of unchangeable words. If you will take a work written in my language, you will find that each word is always in one constant form, namely, in that form in which it is printed in the dictionary, and that the various grammatical forms, reciprocal relation between words, etc., etc., are expressed by the union of unchanging words. But, because such a construction of language is quite strange to Europeans, I adapted this dismemberment of the language to the spirit of the European languages, so that anyone learning mine from a manual would not suppose that it differed in construction from his own. Take, for example, the word fratino, which in reality consists of three words, frat, in, o. Frat gives the idea of the offspring[9] of one’s parents, in the idea of the female sex, and o the idea of existence (person or thing), hence a noun. These three ideas combined, in Esperanto, make fratino = a sister. The first and last make frato = a brother. The instruction book shows this in the following manner:—Brother = frat-, but because every substantive in the nominative ends in o, therefore frato = brother. For the formation of the feminine, the little word -in- is inserted, therefore fratino = sister. In this way, the dismemberment of the language in no way embarrasses the learner; he does not even suspect that that which he calls a prefix, or suffix, or termination, is really an independent word, which always preserves its meaning, no matter whether it be used at the beginning, middle, or end of a word, or independently, and that every word, with equal right, can be used as a root word or grammatical particle."
Footnote:
[9] It must be remembered that all roots or root-words in Esperanto are either sexless, or have only the sex naturally belonging to the root, unless the feminine suffix—IN—be added. For instance, vir- gives the idea of "man" (male), therefore viro = a man; and we always speak of viro as li = he, because we are sure the noun refers to the male sex. But the root infan- gives only the idea of a "child" (neuter), so, unless we actually know the child is a male, we speak of infano = child as ĝi = it, just as we do in English. When a suffix denoting a person, such as -estr-, -ist-, -ul-, is added to a root, the noun is sexless, or may be presumed to be masculine, unless the feminine -in- be also added.
41. With reference to the above, it will be observed that Dr. Zamenhof calls all combinations of letters,[10] which convey an idea, a "word," as for instance frat, in, o, but in practice the student may find it helpful to use the terms which are defined in pars. 37–39, and (with the exception of the primary words in the list, Part V.) to call no combination a "word" until it receives a grammatical termination.
Footnote:
[10] Not only combinations of letters, but each vowel (as already shown in the case of O), conveys an idea, and is therefore, technically speaking, a word; for instance—
A conveys the idea of quality and marks the Adjective.
E conveys the idea of modification and marks the Adverb.
I conveys the idea of indefiniteness and marks the Infinitive mood.
O conveys the idea of existence, entity and marks the Noun.
U conveys the idea of order and marks the Imperative mood.
In the table of Correlative Words, Dr. Zamenhof carries out the idea of indefiniteness in the I series, ia, ial, iam, etc.; all, however, be it noted, independent indivisible roots (see par. 147). In fact ia, ie, io, might be considered as adjective, adverb, and noun, regularly formed from the indefinite word (or grammatical