KLH3 –  A Constructed Language

KLH3 Morphology

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

Word Classification

Words are classified as verbs, quantity words, nouns, pronouns, and particles. Verbs are conjugated; nouns and pronouns are declined. The kinds of particles are post-final, adverbial, and determining. Verbs are grouped into classes with respect to transitivity and action type. Many verbs and some quantity words are scalar (i.e. able to be used to denote scales of comparison). Nouns can be animate or inanimate, count or mass, and common or proper. Nouns are also divided into syntax-relevent classes.

Person and Number Terminology

This person terminology is used for both verb inflection and personal pronouns.

For the M person, the unmarked form is dual (2 persons) with the plural referring to more than 2 persons. For all others, the unmarked form is singular (1 person) with the plural referring to more than 1 person.

Declension

Noun Declension

Nouns are inflected for referentiality, number, and case. Non-referential nouns (as well as mass nouns) don't distinguish number.

Noun stems are grouped according to their endings: there are stems ending in consonants and stems ending in vowels.

Noun Number Suffixes
Suffixes Tag Name
V-Stems C-Stems
-0 -0 Singular Stem
-z -a -P Plural Stem
-na -na -NR Non-Referential Stem

The case endings are appended to the singular, plural, or non-referential noun stem. Each noun is either animate or inanimate. Inanimate nouns don't normally take the vocative cases endings.

Case Suffixes
Suffixes Tag Name Group
V-Stems C-Stems
-0 -0 Absolutive Core
-y -i -Voc Vocative Oblique
-t -t (-o) -Gen Genitive Adnominal

Noun Examples

lentízat pármazi
lentíz-a-t parma-z-i
?-P-Gen ?-P-Voc
"?" "?"

Pronouns

Pronouns lack non-referential forms. The following table shows which of the other inflections appear for the various groups of pronouns and also whether there's a corresponding determiner:

Extant Pronoun Forms
Pronoun Determiner Plural Absolutive Vocative
Local - yes yes -
Anaphoric - yes yes -
"the same" yes yes yes -
Demonstrative yes yes yes yes
Satisfactive yes - yes -
Content Question
Indefinite Relative - - yes -
Correlative
Reflexive
Relative yes - - -
Indefinite yes - - -

The following table shows the local, reflexive, and relative pronoun roots, along with their genitive forms. The local pronouns take the plural suffix -z and the genitive suffix -o.

Personal Pronoun Roots
Root Genitive Tag Description Group
K K person Local
nóó L L person
tlé tláw M M person
sáw Rfx Reflexive (3rd person) Other
Cor Correlative (3rd person)

The demonstrative pronouns each have animate and inanimate stems, as do "the same" and the anaphoric pronouns. All these take noun-type plural and genitive suffixes.

Gendered Pronoun Stems
Animate Inanimate Description
3A 3I Anaphoric
tima ProxA tiko ProxI Proximal Demonstrative
zoma MediA zoko MediI Medial Demonstrative
lama DistA lako DistI Distal Demonstrative
?ma ?A ?ko ?I "the same"

The following pronouns have stems for definition and identity.

Other Pronoun Stems
Identity Definition Description
cák QId "who" cár QDef "what" Content Question
'ák UId "whoever" 'ár UDef "whatever" Indefinite
- ?r SatDef "enough" Satisfactive

Conjugation

Verbs are inflected for polarity, temporal marking (such as aspect or tense), inversion, transitivity, proximate person and number, and obviative person and number.

Verb stems are also grouped according to their endings: there are stems ending in consonants and stems ending in vowels, although this affects the suffixes less. ???

Polarity Marking

Negative polarity may be marked using the suffix -ál -Neg while positive polarity is unmarked. The polarity marker is the 1st suffix following the verb stem (after any derivational suffixes).

Temporal Suffixes

The temporal suffixes follow the polarity suffix, if any, According to the type of temporal marker, there are 7 sets of conjugated stems: final, imperative, coordinate, subordinate, infinitive, secondary, and participial. The temporal suffixes are shown in the following table.

Temporal Suffixes
Suffixes Tag Name Type
Static Dynamic
-'a -Pst Past Final
-yo -Prs Present
-ís -Fut Future
-? -Ctf Contrafactual
-0 Imperative Imperative
-? -Seq Sequential Conjunction Coordinate
-? -Sim Simultaneous Conjunction
-? -Dis Disjunction
-0 -so -Prf Perfect Subordinate & Infinitive
-Prg Progressive
-le -Pro Prospective
-0 -Aor Aoristic
-0 -Prf Perfect Secondary & Participial
-Prg Progressive
-le -Pro Prospective

Proximate and Inversion Suffixes

In general, these endings mark the person and number of the proximate argument, as well as the inversion. Along with the temporal suffixes, they determine the verb's function.

Infinitive forms have no personal ending.

Secondary forms have no personal ending.

Imperative forms have the following endings:

Imperative Endings
Suffix Tag Person Number
-y -2S 2nd Singular
-a -MD M Dual
-toy -2P 2nd Plural
-toa -MP M

Non-local finite and participial forms have the following endings:

Imperative Endings
Suffix Tag Inversion Type
-w -RelDir Direct Participial
-mo -RelInv Inverse
-z -3Dir Direct Finite
-mez -3Inv Inverse

Unilocal participial forms, Unilocal finite forms, and Bilocal finite forms are made up of an inversion and number part and a person part.

Person and Number Suffixes
K person L person M person Tag Inversion Number
-k -n -r -SDir Direct Singular
-mek -men -mer -SInv Inverse
-tok -ton -tor -PDir Direct Plural
-hak -han -har -PInv Inverse

Obviative and Transitivity Prefixes

Class 1 is basically transitive, but can be made intransitive. Classes 2 and 3 are basically intransitive, but can be made transitive. Class 4 verbs can only be intransitive and don't take any prefixes. Class 5 verbs are impersonal. All but the Intr- prefixes make the verb transitive, if it isn't already. The prefixes are shown in the following table:

Verb Prefixes
Class 1 Classes 2 & 3 Tag Description
ki- 0- Intr- Intransitive
0- mi- Tran- Transitive
'ó- LS- L person singular
zó- LP- L person plural
s(e)- Rfx- Reflexive
wá- Par- Participial

The L person prefixes can be used only with K person suffixes.

Verb Examples

zóhookyotok kihookalísmen
zó-hook-yo-tok ki-hook-ál-ís-men
LP-?-Prs-KPDir Intr-?-Neg-Fut-LSInv
"?" "?"

Special Verbs

The special verbs include the copula, the existential verb, and their suppletive negatives. They take temporal suffixes. The existential verbs are always intransitive. The copulas are transitive but can't take inverse endings or the intransitive prefix.

Special Verbs
Root Tag Description
zoy Exi existential, positive/affirmative
xay ExiNeg existential, negative
xi Cop copula, positive
pa CopNeg copula, negative


Irregular Verbs

Derivation

Some derivations, such as compounding and incorporation, are more syntactical than morphological.

Verb to Verb

The productive verb-to-verb derivations include the natural possibility modal, marked by the suffix -yosˇu (NP), the natural necessity modal, marked by the suffix -kashˇu (NN), and the conative, which is marked by the suffix -dor (Con). Conative verbs are dynamic while the others are static. Some verbs also have a dynamic autocausative derivation, marked by the suffix -okˇu (Aut); these will all be listed in the lexicon.

Noun to Verb

Certain verbs directly incorporate certain kinds of nouns. The construction where a transitive non-local verb is preceded by the combining form of a noun is productive and also has the effect of incorporation.

Verb to Noun

Superlative nouns are derived from scalar verbs by means of a suffix. Ordinal numbers are also nouns and are derived from the corresponding cardinal numbers. There are also participant nominals (deverbal nouns).

Noun to Noun

Idiomatic noun-noun compounds occur. The construction where a noun is preceded by the combining form of a noun is productive and has the effect of noun-noun compounding.


page started: 2016.Jul.12 Tue
current date: 2016.Jul.13 Wed
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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