Jul23 –  A Constructed Language

Jul23 Morphology

Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".

Morphology Overview

Word Classes

The word classes are verbs, which are all inflected, conjunctions, some of which are inflected, adverbs, and some particles. Verbs are subdivided according to action type and argument structure. Some verbs are also scalar or temporal.

Index Affixes

Index affixes are common to verbs and inflected conjunctions. There are both singular and plural indexes (independent of each other). The numbering is arbitrary.

Index Affixes
Singular Plural
Affix Tag Affix Tag
ni S0 lo P0
ki S1 ja P1
to S2 ze P2
me S3 pe P3
ba S4 si P4
xo S5 - -
fa S6 - -
- - - -

Conjunction Inflection

An inflected conjunction takes an index prefix making it dependent; otherwise, it's independent. The complement clause conjunction must take an index prefix while a coordinating conjunction may.

Verb Agreement Inflection

Verb agreement morphology involves an index prefix slot and up to 3 suffix slots (limited by the verb stem's valence). According to the argument structure, there are 3 classes of verb stems:

  1. univalent stems,
  2. bivalent stems, and
  3. trivalent stems.

The presence of an index prefix (in the 1st slot) makes the verb form dependent, in which case 1 of the agreement slots must be relativized. The absence of the index prefix makes the verb form independent.

Each agreement slot allowed by the valence contains an index suffix, a pronominal suffix, an unspecified argument suffix, a relativization suffix, or is null. A slot may not be null if the following slot isn't. A relativization suffix in the last allowed slot is always replaced by null and an unspecified argument suffix is replaced by null whenever possible. If the verb form is dependent and no relativization suffix appears, the first null slot will be taken as relativized.

Each agreement slot has an associated semantic role, depending on the stem's valence and possible derivational suffix. The following table shows typical roles for root verbs:

Basic Semantic Roles
Valence 1st Slot 2nd Slot 3rd Slot
1 S Subject - - - -
2 P Patient A Agent - -
3 T Theme R Recipient D Donor

Non-index Agreement Suffixes

The following table shows the other agreement suffixes:

Non-index Agreement Suffixes
Suffix Tag Description
-mi -1S 1st person singular
-vi -1P 1st person (exclusive) plural
-gi -Incl 1st person inclusive plural (= Inclusive person)
-ci -Hor Hortative (Inclusive person, imperative mood)
-go -2 2nd person
-co -Imp Imperative (2nd person, imperative mood)
-te -X Reflexive (all persons)
-ha -U Unspecified argument
-sa -R Relativized argument

Other Verb Inflection

Verbs are also inflected for aspect, polarity, and mood.

Mood

The imperative mood is indicated by the presence of an imperative or hortative agreement suffix; otherwise, the mood is indicative. Imperative mood verbs must be independent. The imperative or hortative suffix is assumed to occupy the agent or donor slot, so any preceding U suffixes may be omitted here. If only 1 of the preceding suffixes is present for a trivalent verb, it's assumed to be the theme.

Polarity

Morphological polarity is marked in the 2nd prefix slot. Polar questions are handled by syntax.

Polarity Suffixes
Suffix Tag Name
Positive
dew- Aff- Affirmative
hoy- Neg- Negative

Aspect and Action Type

The aspect may be marked in the final suffix slot. The aspect suffixes are shown in the following table:

Aspect Suffixes
Suffix Tag Name
-x -Aor Aoristic
-k -Prf Perfect
-s -Prs Present
-r -Fut Future

Each verb stem has an implicit action type which determines what aspect is in effect when no aspect suffix appears. The labels are used in the lexicon entries along with the valence number.

Action Types
Name Label Unmarked Aspect
Scalar A Present
Temporal W Present
Static S Present
Habitual H Present
Dynamic D Present
Telic T Aoristic

Examples


spali!
su-pali
Imp-run
"Run!"


hoyzongomix.
hoy-zon-go-mi-x
Neg-see-2-1S-Aor
"I didn't see you."


yaprinoson.
ya-prin-os-on
Exp-dance-Ben-2/1A
"You've danced for us before."


Scalar Derivations

Comparative, equative, and superlative verbs are regularly derived from scalar roots. For each of these, an argument is added.

Scalar Suffixes
Suffix Tag Name
-kow -Cmp Comparative
-par -Equ Equative
-tey -Sup Superlative

Comparatives and Equatives

For comparatives and equatives, the new argument specifies the standard of comparison. If the scalar is univalent, the new argument occupies the 1st slot and the subject (specifying the subject of comparison) moves to the 2nd slot.

Superlatives

For superlatives, the new argument specifies the partitive whole. If the scalar is univalent, the new argument occupies the 1st slot and the subject (speciying the part selected by the superlative) moves to the 2nd slot.


Derivation

Derivation is accomplished by suffixing and compounding. Compounding uses a modifier-head order.

There are suffixes which derive telic state-change verb stems from static and scalar verb roots:

The thematic suffix -Thm - applies directly to a root, incorporating it as the theme of a bivalent verb such that the agent's referent applies it to the patient's referent.

There are other suffixes that derive verbs from verbs, such as the causative -Caus which applies to univalent roots and the autocausative -Auto which applies to bivalent roots.

Numbers

Cardinal Numbers

The cardinal numbers are quantity words:

Numbers
Value Initial Value Initial Value Initial Value Initial
1 šin·a 10 tay·a 100 neš·a 1000 ·a
2 hor·a 20 taihor·a 200 nešhor·a 2000 ·a
3 xam·a 30 taixam·a 300 nešxam·a 3000 ·a
4 pes·a 40 taipes·a 400 nešpes·a 4000 ·a
5 tal·a 50 taital·a 500 neštal·a 5000 ·a
6 xand·a 60 taixand·a 600 nešxand·a 6000 ·a
7 kōy·a 70 taikōy·a 700 neškōy·a 7000 ·a
8 pehr·a 80 taipehr·a 800 nešpehr·a 8000 ·a
9 serm·a 90 taiserm·a 900 nešserm·a 9000 ·a

Compound numbers are formed largest value to smallest value with all but the last number taking the suffix -e instead of the agreement suffix, e.g. nešxande-taibese-hor·a "642". Zero is pūx·a.

Fractional Numbers

Fractional numbers represent denominators formed from cardinal numbers. They're formed by ... the derivational ... - - to the stem of the last part of the number, e.g. - "-%".

Distributive Numbers

Ordinal Numbers

The ordinal suffix -'lo -Ord derives bivalent ordinal number verbs from the corresponding cardinal numbers.


page started: 2017.Jul.25 Tue
current date: 2017.Jul.26 Wed
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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