Jaguar 5 –  A Constructed Language

Jaguar 5 Inflection Usage

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

Person

The person marker specifies the possessor of a noun. When used on a proper noun referring to an individual, the possessor indicates which person the referent is a close relative of.

The referent of the 3rd person coreferential 3C is usually introduced in the preceding clause. However, when marked on a noun or participle, its referent may have been introduced earlier in the same clause.

Status and Number

When the noun possessor is unspecified, a number marker is used only for a new referent while the definite marker must be used for an old referent. However, when the possessor is specified, either the definite marker or a number marker may be used.

The following table summarizes the occurrence and translation of the number markers in various contexts:

Number Usage
Tag Number Count Noun Mass Noun
Pos/Aff PQ Neg Pos/Aff PQ Neg
-Sg Singular "1" "any" - "any"
-Du Dual "2", "pair" - - - -
-Pc Paucal "few" - "small amount" -
-Pl Plural "many" - "large amount" -

Names of persons and places tend to be made up of ordinary nouns, except for the status. Note that the proper noun statuses implies number (singular for persons and places, plural for groups).

Associativity

The associativity marker -Asc adds to the noun referent a set of associated entities.

Aspects

When the verb has the perfect-stative aspect (Prf), it represents either a state resulting from a prior event (perfect) or a state with no prior event implied (stative), depending on the verb. When the verb has the progressive-prospective aspect (Pro), it represents either an event in progress or a state from which a subsequent event is expected to emerge, depending on the verb. When the verb has the aoristic aspect (Aor), it represents an event (possibly a transition into a state) taken as a whole.

Each verb has an action type: either static, telic, or (other) dynamic. This determines the verb's aspect when aspect is unmarked: static verbs have the perfect-stative aspect, dynamic verbs have the progressive-prospective aspect, and telic verbs have the aoristic aspect. The following table shows the specifics of the aspects for each action type:

Aspect Usage
Tag Aspect Static Dynamic Telic
Prf Perfect-stative stative perfect perfect
Pro Progressive-prospective (inchoative) progressive progressive prospective
Aor Aoristic (inchoative) aoristic aoristic aoristic

K Roles and Modes

The mode markers are a subset of the K Role markers:

For the others (agent KAgt, patient KPat, and imperative Imp), the K person is a participant of the event.

Determining Tense

The time of an imperative verb or a jussive verb is either immediate future or deferred future.

Things that force the tense of any other finite verb to be non-present include the aoristic aspect, temporal adverbs other than "now", and most temporal adjunct clauses. Unless overridden by a temporal adverb, verbs with future mode have future tense when non-present while verbs with other modes have past tense when non-present. Unless overridden, verbs with stative, perfect, progressive, and prospective aspects have present tense.

J Roles

The influence role Infl is used when the jaguar influences the situation; this is translated in a variety of ways. The other roles (agent JAgt, patient JPat, and none NJ) are straight-forward.

Polarity

Note that negative polarity applies to the verb, but not to its mode.

When the verb is negated, any universal or existential quantification is changed to the other.

page started: 2017.Apr.07 Fri
current date: 2017.Apr.08 Sat
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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