Note: Vocabulary items appearing in the examples may be temporary stand-ins.
Roots are represented by a pair of letters, excluding a/A, e/E, and o/O. Upper and lower case are distinct, so there are 2116 possible pairs. There are 3 classes of roots: nouns, univalent verbs (including adjectives), and bivalent verbs (including relational roots). The same pair can be used for one of each class; this allows for 6348 possible roots.
Each root is prefixed with a function symbol, which determines which class the root belongs to (or which root a pair represents) and its syntactical function. The function symbols are shown in the following table; note that the prefix for noun roots functioning as nouns is null.
| Function | Noun | Univalent | Bivalent | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noun | # | # | ||||
| Attributive | + | Att.N- | ) | Att.A- | ( | Att.V- |
| Resultative | # | > | Rsl.A- | < | Rsl.V- | |
| Adjunctive | | | Dep.N- | } | Dep.A- | { | Dep.V- |
| Predicative | = | Prd.N- | ] | Prd.A- | [ | Prd.V- |
If a root is derivational, it must be followed by another root, which acts as a base for derivation. Each derivational root requires a base of a particular class, which is lexically determined. Some derivational roots occur in pairs, so that they can derive from both univalent and bivalent bases.
The basic pronouns are represented by single digits.
| Symbol | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Ind | indefinite |
| 1 | 1 | 1st person |
| 2 | 2 | 2nd person |
| 3 | 3A | 3rd person animate proximate |
| 4 | 3O | 3rd person animate obviative |
| 5 | 3I | 3rd person inanimate |
| 6 | Agt | host agent |
| 7 | Pat | host patient |
| 8 | Rfx | reflexive |
| 9 | Inc | inclusive person |
Literals are strings of symbols enclosed by quote symbols ".
Example: "John Smith".
Cardinal numbers are represented by sequences of digits preceded by one of the
univalent verb function prefixes.
Example: )1024.
The syntax is SVO Accusative and Head-Modifier. Examples:
1[hr2. "I heard you."
3[siDG)bk. "He saw a black dog."
Polar questions are indicated by the symbol ? appearing at the start of the sentence.
?2[si1. "Did you see me?"
The negative polarity prefix ^ precedes the function prefix.
1^[si2. "I didn't see you."
Some bivalent verbs are actually trivalent. The 3rd argument of a trivalent verb is a noun phrase introduced by the oblique marker @.
1[gvbk@3. "I gave her a book."
This section has changed.
C2/VAN has aspect rather than tense. Aspect is either null (unmarked) or marked with suffixes. The aspects have either dynamic interpretations or static interpetations.
| Symbol | Tag | Static | Dynamic |
|---|---|---|---|
| "it's broken/hot" | "it's gotten broken/hot" | ||
| \ | -Prg | "it's getting broken/hot" | |
| % | -Pro | "it'll be broken/hot" | "it's going to get broken/hot" |
| _ | -Ret | "it was broken/hot" | "it'd gotten broken/hot" |
| mN[GBmt. | "A man ate some meat." |
|---|---|
| DG]Rn\. | "A dog is running." |
| ?2[lv%0. | "Are you going to leave?" |
| JV;]HT_. | "The coffee was hot." |
The suffix * marks nouns and pronouns as plural and verbs as pluractional (or habitual). It appears first. Plural marking may be omitted with quantifiers.
kT*[GB\0. "Some cats are eating."
DG)al]Rn*\. "All dogs run."
The suffix ! marks verbs as having imperative mood while acting as a demonstrative determiner with nouns. It appears last. The subject may be omitted in which case 2nd person (number not determined) is assumed.
[Rn!. "Run!"
9*[sg!0. "Let's sing!."
?2[si\EL!. "Do you see that elephant?"
The suffix ; marks a noun as definite and the suffix $ marks a noun as specific indefinite. The suffix ? indicates that the clause is a content question and identifies which information is requested.
+kT "a cat"
+kT; "the cat"
+kT$ "this cat"
+kT! "that cat"
+kT? "which cat?"
Adjunct clauses use the adjunctive form of the verb. In an adjunct clause, tense is relative.
mN;{lv0 wm;[GB0.
"The man having left, the woman ate."
6{fx7 1[GBfx;.
"Having fixed it, I ate the fish."
Depictives are also constructed using adjunctive forms with a host argument pronoun as the subject. However, tense is aspectual and the depictive must follow the host.
mN;[GBmt;6}nu. "The man ate the meat nude."
mN;[GBmt;7}ra. "The man ate the meat raw."
1*[sikT;7{inhs;.
"We saw the cat in the house."
A resultative verb or adjective is identified by a resultative function prefix. Tense is aspectual. The resultative follows the host.
1*[ptkT;<inhs;.
"We put the cat in the house."
wm;[pnml;>fl.
"The woman pounded the metal flat."
All complement clauses are introduced by the symbol ~. In a complement clause, tense is relative. When the matrix verb is one of perception, present tense is evidentially direct, while past and future tenses are evidentially indirect.
1[si~gl;[br\wn;.
"I saw the girl breaking the window."
1[si~gl;[brwn;.
"I saw that the girl had broken the window."
Infinitives are constructed as complement clauses with the host argument pronoun (referring to the matrix subject) as the subject. With certain matrix verbs, a future tense complement may be needed (this applies to non-infinitive complements as well).
by;[wl~6[si%EL;.
"The boy wants to see the elephant."
by;[wl~2[si%EL;.
"The boy wants you to see the elephant."
Action nominals are used when no arguments are to be expressed. The nominal, unlike the complement clause, may be marked as definite.
1*[siNVlv;. "We saw the departure."
Embedded questions have the same form as independent questions.
1^[kn\~kT;[lo?.
"I don't know where the cat has been."
1^[kn~?kT;[in\hs;.
"I didn't know if the cat was in the house."
A complement clause may be placed after an oblique argument.
2[qu@1~?5=0%)HT\. "She asked me if it would be getting hot."
When direct speech becomes reported speech, some of the pronouns must change.
Example 1: the original is 9*[sg!0. "Let's sing!"
mN;[sy@wm*;~6&7*[sg!0.
Example 2: the original is [atse!1. "Look at me!"
2[sy@1;~1[atsi!2. "You told me to look at you."
A relative clause follows and modifies a noun. Relative clauses use either pronoun 6 or 7 to refer to the head noun within the clause, depending on whether the head noun is the agent or the patient. A 6 or 7 at the start of a relative clause is omitted.
by;(rdbk;]yg.
"The boy who read the book was young."
by;1(gvbk;@6]yg\.
"The boy I gave the book to is young."
Note that in a relative clause, the past tense of static verbs and adjectives refers to a present state (possibly from a prior transition to the state), while the present tense refers to a current transition. This differs from the primary clause usage, where tense is absolute.
mN!)ol^]bg\. "That old man isn't large."
In clauses of definition and identity, the predicate is a noun phrase.
"John"=mN)bg.
"John is a big man." (definition)
mN;2(si6="Tom".
"The man you saw is Tom." (identity)
Nouns are tenseless, so definition and identity clauses are tenseless as well. However, if the indefinite pronoun 0 is used instead of a noun, the predicate acquires tense. This is useful in constructing predicates with compound tense.
1=0)il\.
"I was getting sick."
kT;=0%(inhs;.
"The cat will have entered the house."
Adverbs of manner are formed by prefixing ` to adjectives.
"Tom"[lvrm;`ag. "Tom left the room angrily."
Adverbs of degree are formed by prefixing ` to nouns denoting units of measurement, which are followed by the number of units.
"Tom"]ta`ft)6. "Tom is 6 feet tall."
Temporal adverbs are formed by appending a letter and (in most cases) other information to '. Lower case letters will be used for relative times and dates and upper case letters will be used for absolute times and dates.
A noun may also be modified by a genitive phrase, which consists of the genitive marker : followed by a noun designating the possessor which itself may be modified by either a verb or another genitive phrase.
kT:ma:mN)yg]wt. "The young man's mother's cat is white."
The partitive marker / separates the specification of the part from the noun phrase specifying the whole. Since the whole is implicitly plural (assuming a count noun), the plural suffix may be omitted.
0)2/DG;]bk. "2 of the dogs are black."
0)4/MD)5[rk5. "4 out of 5 doctors recommend it."
An ordinal number functions as a univalent verb and is formed by prefixing # to a sequence of digits. Any function symbol precedes the # symbol; however, the ) symbol is omitted.
There are 2 ordinal number constructions: one uses a modified partitive construction with the ordinal number preceding the quantifier while the other appends the ordinal number to the noun.
0#1)3/ntst "the 1st 3 students"
kT#10 "the 10th cat"
A superlative functions as a univalent verb and is formed by prefixing # to a univalent verb root. Any function symbol precedes the # symbol; however, the ) symbol is omitted.
There are 2 superlative constructions: one uses a modified partitive construction with the superlative preceding the quantifier while the other appends the ordinal number to the noun.
0#bg)3/bk "the biggest 3 books"
mN#ol "the oldest man"
Comparatives with explicit standards of comparison use the basic form of the adjective with an adjunctive specifying whether it's a comparison of equality or inequality along with the standard. Note that the subject of the adjunctive coreferences the subject of comparison.
DG;]sm6{askT;.
"The dog is as small as the cat."
mN;)yg]Rn`fs6{thmN;)ol.
"The young man ran faster than the old man."
by;[etPT)mc6{thgl;.
"The boy ate more potatoes than the girl."
by;[etPT)mc7{thRS.
"The boy ate more potatoes than rice."
page started: 2012.Aug.18 Sat
current date: 2014.May.01 Thu
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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