Grammar Review (Balarila): Nouns (Pangngalan)

Grammar Review (Balarila): Nouns (Pangngalan)

For English Grammar, I'll use a public domain source material from 1898 called Primary English Grammar. For the language of the Pilipinas, I may use several books and Wikipedia throughout my study. I use Wikipedia because I notice that grammar and languages have changed for both languages in the 100 years or so since the publications.

THE NOUN.

4. A Noun is the name of a person or of a thing [place, animal, event, idea, state, quality, or action]; as, Mary, Thomas, city, horse ; and Nouns are of several classes.
(1.) A Common Noun is a general name or the name of a class of things ; as, boy, girl, city, country.
(2.) A Proper Noun is a particular name ; as, Lucy, James, London, France. A Proper Noun always begins with a capital letter.
(3.) A Collective Noun is the name of a collection of things ; as, army, flock, pack.
(4.) An Abstract Noun is the name of a quality; as, beauty, length, goodness.

PANGNGALAN.

 (taken from Wikipedia, although I change some of the examples to fit more with the English text above.) I'm also trying to group somewhat similar constructs in both languages. I can't fit them exact, but there is somewhat some similar grammar terms.

Isang panggnalan tumutukoy sa ngalan ng tao, bagay, pook, hayop, at pangyayari.

Maaaring mahimay ang pangngalan nang ayon sa kaurian, katuturan, kasarian, kailanan, kaanyuan, kalikasan, at katungkulan.
(1.) Kaurian - Kung minsan, ang pangngalan ay pantangi o pambalana.
(a.) Pantangi - ang pamagat tumutukoy sa tiyak na ngalan ng tao, bagay, hayop, pook, pangyayari, at iba pa. Karaniwang nagsisimula sa malaking titik. Halimbawa: Lucy, James, Joshua, Angelo, Pilipinas, Manila, Malolos, Amerika.
(b.) Pambalana - tumutukoy sa pangkalahatang ngalan ng tao, pook, hayop, bagay, pangyayari, at iba pa. Karaniwang nagsisimula sa maliit na titik. Halimbawa: lalaki, babae, bansa, korporasyon, lungsod, bayan.

(2.) Katuturan - Naayon sa sakop o uri ng katuturan ang mga pangngalan. Maaari itong lansak, basal, o tahas. 
(a.) Lansak (o lansakan) - pangngalang tumutukoy sa isang kalipunan o karamihan. Maaaring maylapi ito o wala. Halimbawa: madla, sangkatauhan, kapuluan, hukbo, kawan.
(b.) Basal - pangngalang tumutukoy sa mga kaisipan o konsepto na hindi nararanasan ng limang pandamdam at walang pisikal na katangian. Nasa anyong payak ang lahat ng pangngalan basal. Halimbawa: wika, yaman, buhay.
(c.) Tahas - pangngalang nararanasan ng isa sa mga limang pandamdam (paningin, pandinig, panlasa, pakiramdam at pang-amoy) at may katangiang pisikal. Halimbawa: tubig, bundok, pagkain.

(3.) Kongkreto o Di-konkreto - ng mga pangngalan ay maaari ring pangkatin sa kongkreto at di-kongkreto.
(a.) Kongkreto - pangngalang nahahawakan, nakikita, nalalasahan at iba pang nagagamitan ng pandama. Halimbawa: gatas, kapatid, kotse.
(b.) Di-konkreto - pangngalang tumutukoy sa kalagayan o kundisyon. Halimbawa: pagmamahal, gutom, kapayapaan.

Wow! That is fun.

Type of Myth #1 & #2; Fable #1: part 1

Myths Series
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

Myths: Types and functions

Mythology: How they are created

Myth #1: Blood and Water - Begin
Myth #2: From them, all become
Type of Myth #1 & #2; Fable #1: part 1

Earth Diver, Secretion, and Sacrifice type myths

Looking at Marta Weigle's creation type list, I try to categorize my two creation myths. She lists accretion/conjunction, secretion, sacrifice, division/consummation, earth diver, emergence, two creators, deus faber, ex nihilo as creation types.
Types of Creation Myths

If I categorized the first two myths, the blood and water is more like a mixture of creation types earth diver and secretion. Whereas the maggot myth is more like sacrifice creation because the maggots came from the ancient skeleton and had eaten away flesh - so both have been caused by parts of the god. After falling down to Aioskoru, powers morph them into new beings.

Beginning to attempt to create a fable.

After the first two creation myths which saw the creation of winged creatures and serpents, I wanted to create my first fable which includes the three moons of Aioskoru.

Story idea pieces
Winged beast
Serpent
Three moons

So i thought about making a fable of bird taking snake to the moons.

I write down these words, which I want to develop into a fable.

Bird takes snake to the moons

Bird takes snake to the moons
© 2017 Ken Wickham

I really want to do more than that summary sentence. But first, I want to look at a few fables in the next post. I want to see how people have created fables in the past.

So my next posts will look at fables, so that I can equip myself with some basic fable making knowledge using some of the knowledge of the past.

Myths: Types and functions

Myths Series
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

In the last post, in Joseph Cambell's quotes, he brings up some interesting topics. Dreams vs myths, truth, poetry, symbols, and supernatural beings are a few of the topics he brings to the myth conversation.

Are there different types of myths?

I spend some of this post exploring this question

Types of Myths

(from In The Global Myths, by Alexander Eliot) 

1. Primitive myths which were generally stories about nature, as told by shamans. 
2. Pagan myths which were like the Greek and Roman tales of the interplay between deities and humans. 
3. Sacred myths as in the stories from current eastern and western religions such as Christianity and Hinduism. 
4. Scientific myths Credos, rather than hypothesis carefully tested for fit with empirical evidence. 

Okay so Eliot categorized these myths into four types. I've put in bold the key words that I find usesful: nature, deities & humans, religions, and science. I see these as broad categories. Myths cross the lines of science, nature, religion, and explanations of the powers of the universe.

Summarizing all of these, I could say that myths help explain the natural world in absence of science and explains religious and cultural deities relationships with humans.

and from David Adams Leeming's The World of Myth

1. Cosmic myths including narratives of the creation and end of the world. 
2. Theistic myths portraying the deities
3. Hero myths with accounts of individuals such as Achilles and Jesus
4. Place and object myths describing places such as Camelot, and objects such as the Golden Fleece

http://www.mythome.org/mythII.html

Leeming categorized myths into specific categories of creation & end of the world, deities, heroes, and place & objects. This categorization covers more the substance and content of the myths - the main cast, time, places, and objects of the myths. He uses 'narratives', 'portraying', 'accounts', and 'describing' all in similar ways for each of the content. Basically myths tell of imaginary people, events, places, things, or ideas. Imaginary in that there is no direct evidence that the accounts are correct or entirely true.

After looking at some types of myths I also want to look at another question. What are the functions of myths? Are they just stories? Or how do these stories bring meaning to our lives?

What are the functions of myths

1. Myths grant continuity and stability to a culture.
2. Myths present guidelines for living.
3. Myths justify a culture's activities.
4. Myths give meaning to life.
5. Myths explain the unexplained.
6. Myths offer role models.

http://www.mythome.org/mythII.html

Myths are cultural and useful to transmit knowledge on living. They help to bring meaning to cultural groups over a long period of time. They help to explain things that evidence cannot explain.

RPG vs Story Scene: Scene resolution

RPG and Story Scene Series

RPG and Story Scenes: The foundation of action within a story.

RPG and Story Scenes: RPG scenes

RPG and Story Scenes: Writing and RPG methods
RPG vs Story Sequel: Reaction 
RPG vs Story Scene: Scene resolution

Stories have different endings for the entire storyline. And each scene also has its own an ending in much the same way. Less likely will scenes in the middle of a story end well like many story endings. There is something about bad endings, despair, and struggle that keeps our attention..

One common advice given is that every ending must have a cause, and every cause must have ending. A scene must end with an answer. Even if the answer is 'not yet'. Scene answers are lived out by the characters, not vocalized.

Another piece of common advice is to move forward in a story, a character moves backwards from attaining their goal, until the final main scene.

Types of Endings
Boring ending Explicit endings
a. Yes. 
Caution: Too many of these will be boring
View point character gains their objective = happy ending
For scenes, one good method is to make it appear everything is going great. And then in the next related scene everything falls apart.

More interesting endings
b. No.
View point character loses their objective = unhappy ending. This is caused by a direct obstruction of the goal.
c. Sort of.
View point character gains partially their objective however is missing a large portion of the objective.
d. Yes, unfortunately.
View point character gains their objective but loses something more valuable = tragedy or setback.
e. Yes, at all cost.
View point character sacrifices their objective for the greater good.

e. No, however. View point character losses track of objective. The character can be sidetracked by an indirect obstruction.
f. An unexpected twist can help or hinder the scene, depending on how jarring and cheating the author employs the twist. A cliffhanging scene can also serve a similar function. She pulled off the mask of the killer that had fallen after her blow of a chair. Underneath she saw the taped face of her father, who looked terrified.

Implicit endings
g. Metaphoric, sign, or image. 
Thematic ending that has meaning mixed up into imagery, description, and events. Where what happens means more than what is described.
h. I don't know.
View point character has a unresolved or confusing muddled finish. The scene is left up to interpretations of the reader. This may leave more questions to be answered.

RPG setting Endings
Some RPGs have mimicked many of these results for skills, action, and scenes.
Mythic led the groundbreaking work with the solo GM emulator. Other popular system that use similar structures are FU, CRGE, Tiny Soldiers, Fate Solo RPG, and including my evolving ABS12 system.

In it, the emulate those types of endings by offering answers to questions. Normally the structure used is for example the FU system by Nathan Russell. This system divides the even answers and meaning types of 'Yes' and odd answers, 'No'

6 Yes, and
4 Yes
2 Yes, but
5 No, but
3 No
1 No, and

Other RPGs don't explicitly state these types of answers. Some use degrees of success and failure such as Fate. Some use critical rolls and target numbers. Some rely on the GM to interpret the story more heavily.

Scene ending focuses
Also endings can be described in terms of their focus.
i. Two non-fiction forms of scene endings

• Add a final piece of information
• Hint that future events will be forthcoming.

Two focuses of scene endings
Plot - focuses on change of plot direction
Character - focuses on the change of an understanding of the character

Other types of endings Impending doom - doom is right in front of the character. She felt a knife blade held up across her throat.
Something is about to happen - something signals the beginning of something else. In the midst of deep sleep a crash of broken glass awoke her ...

Scene Obstacle Types
Obstacle types can direct the scene towards a scene ending.

Common obstacles
Danger
drama

death
injury
health

Change epiphany
complication
mistake
decision

Unknown suspense
threat
danger
doom

Final Thoughts on Series
This is my fifth and final series post, unless I think of stuff or gather some other scene ideas for a later future post. I hope I have covered a blended view of scenes both for gaming and stories.