Thanks Tommus. I will update the blog as soon as possible with the changes. Thanks or the corrections too.
Prepositions: I find it difficult to learn a word such as "o", which is a preposition of quantity, which does not have an actual word in English. The example: "Ze axtet o 8kg – She-he bought 8kg." I think it is OK to say something like "o" is a preposition of quantity, but I think it is also important to have an actual word translation, which could be "quantity" or "amount", and show that in the sample English sentence. The learner then has something more positive to hold onto, rather that hang out on the abstract meaning of "preposition of quantity". The user can then choose to omit that word in the English translation if she-he desires. This observation also applies to other prepositions such as "v" whose translation could be 'against". I know these translations often show up in the example sentences, but I think they also should be in the translation space, not just the abstract notion of "quantity".
It is impossible to have a 1-to-1 translation to English in every case. I am a translator myself and it just does not work in any pair of languages I can work on. However, I do understand that, for clarification purposes, it would be good to give more examples with the "o" preposition.
As I have said before, this preposition is better understood when making questions in English, when you use: "How much does it weight?", instead of "What does it weight?". Atlas has to be consistent, so the answer to question "Ez viktis o ven?", must be "ez viktis o 49kg". If the question uses a preposition of quantity, the answer must do too.
In Atlas, it seems to be the reverse. Small words like "u" and "i" have built-in detail that removes much of the need for context. That is the reason that Atlas seems to be begging to have 52 or more prepositions to cover every possibility.
You mention prepositions "on" and "in", but for foreign learners they are not so much dependant on context. They do have strict rules, although they have many uses. The only preposition I know of that depends only on context is "je" in Esperanto, as far as I am concerned. As for the others, you can say "in" January but not "on" January, or "interested in" but not "interested on", so the rules behind prepositions are normally huge.
Apart from the main prepositions of quantity, time and place (o,u,i), the rest of them have different meanings now, and their meaning is dependant on context but limited to 3,4 different situations.
You could, of course, eliminate some prepositions in certain situations. English does it with, for instance, with the following sentence: "the program lasted three hours", where "three hours" is a complement of time not preceeded by a preposition.
Well, is it really interesting for an auxlang? Having all verb complements (except subject, DO) followed by prepositions gives you:
- easy to recognize verb complements.
- less complex grammar (less or no exceptions).
- easier for (automatic) translation?
I agree the Atlas prepositions are more restrictive than the English ones, but that is not a bad thing. Atlas prepositions are better optimized (it is natural, English has not been created but evolved naturally). "u" in Atlas is "on", "in", "at" etc for time in English. In English you need to learn why you use "on" before days for time, why "in" for years, why "at" for hours... but in Atlas is only one. So yes, more restrictive, a bit less dependent on context...but that adds simplicity. Prepositions are a nightmare to learn when rules are not well set. English is a good example, with beginning-intermediate students having loads of difficulties with them. Esperanto tried to solve this problem partially with "je", saying "if you don't know what to use, just use "je", and context will try to do its thing".
Bfff, I should set a maximum amount of characters for my answers, have I answered any of your questions?