Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".
The word classes are predicate, quantity word, pronoun, determiner, adverb, conjunction, and particle. Except for a few adverbs and quantity words, scalar words, which can be used as scales of comparison, are predicates.
Predicate stems distinguish default degrees of permanence, countability, comparability, telicity, and the default gender of 2 arguments (the defaults may be overridden by affixes). A system of 2 axes handles most (if not all) distinctions among the predicates. The 2nd involves the argument genders while the 1st involves the rest.
The degrees of permanence are transient, habitual, and inherent. The countability values are mass, count, and dependent on context. Inherent predicates are either mass or count, while others are dependent. Some transient stems are scalar and some others are telic. The combinations that occur in stems are as follows:
| Label | Permanence | Countability | Scalar | Telic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M_ | Inherent | Mass | No | No |
| N_ | Inherent | Count | No | No |
| H_ | Habitual | Dependent | No | No |
| S_ | Transient | Dependent | Yes | No |
| T_ | Transient | Dependent | No | Yes |
| V_ | Transient | Dependent | No | No |
The 2 arguments marked on the predicate are labelled agent (prefix) and patient (suffix). Each may be animate, inanimate, or null, according to the marking or the default in absence of marking. Only certain combinations of defaults occur; these combinations are shown in the following table:
| Label | Name | Agent | Patient | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _UU | Impersonal | Null | Null | |
| _UA | Animate | Null | Animate | |
| _UI | Inanimate/Patientive | Null | Inanimate | |
| _AU | Agentive | Animate | Null | |
| _AA | ? | Animate | Animate | |
| _AI | Transitive | Animate | Inanimate | |
| _II | ? | Inanimate | Inanimate |
The following table gives example glosses for combinations of the 2 axes:
| _UU | _UA | _UI | _AU | _AA | _AI | _II | |
| M_ | water(2) | water(1) | blood | juice | |||
| N_ | cat | cup | mother | hand | fruit | ||
| H_ | male | friend, flock | inhabit | grove | |||
| S_ | happy | hot, small | act like | near | resemble | ||
| T_ | die | break | give, tell | kick | |||
| V_ | rain | awake | flow | run | help | see, in |
Predicates in classes TAA and VAA are termed trivalent, for syntactical reasons.
Each pronoun is univalent and either animate or inanimate. A pronoun may take a suffix denoting its subject; the defaults are -3AS for animate pronouns and -3IS for inanimate ones. The kinds of pronouns are personal and gender-marked.
| Word | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1S | 1st person singular | |
| 1P | 1st person plural | |
| 2 | 2nd person |
| Animate | Inanimate | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| čoho | CQA | čola | CQI | Content Question |
| miso | ProxA | mitla | ProxI | Proximal demonstrative |
| kuso | MediA | kutla | MediI | Medial demonstrative |
| xaso | DistA | xatla | DistI | Distal demonstrative |
| UniA | UniI | Universal quantifier | ||
A quantity word has both gendered forms, like some pronouns, and basic forms, like determiners.
All affix slots have unmarked alternatives. The affix slots appear in the following order:
Polarity-Agent-Aspect-Auxiliary-Stem-Permanence-Reciprocal-Patient
The Stem can be a Root, a compound, a scalar stem, or a scalar compound. The stem may also include a derivational prefix.
Positive polarity is unmarked; the negative polarity prefix is - Neg-. The same prefix is used on pronouns as well as predicates.
The permanence suffixes change the effective class (1st axis) of a predicate. They're shown in the following table:
| Suffix | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|
| - | -Mas | Mass Inherent |
| - | -Inh | Count Inherent |
| - | -Hab | Habitual |
| - | -Sca | Scalar Transient |
| - | -Tel | Telic Inherent |
| - | -Tra | Other Transient |
I'm not sure all of these are needed.
Aspect is always unmarked when the predicate is marked as or defaults to inherent (mass or count). The unmarked aspect is retrospective for telic predicates, stative for scalar predicates, and otherwise progressive. The aspect prefixes are shown in the following table:
| Prefix | Tag | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stative | scalar predicates only | ||
| - | Prg- | Progressive | marked if telic |
| - | Ret- | Retrospective | marked if non-telic |
| - | Pro- | Prospective | |
| - | Aor- | Aoristic |
The following table shows the person and number affixes:
| Agent | Patient | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | 1S | 1st person singular |
| - | - | 1P | 1st person plural |
| - | - | Hor | 1st person inclusive plural hortative |
| - | - | 2 | 2nd person indicative |
| - | - | Imp | 2nd person imperative |
| - | - | Rfx | reflexive (any person) |
| - | - | HA | 3rd person = head agent |
| - | - | HP | 3rd person = head patient |
| - | - | 3AS | 3rd person animate singular |
| - | - | 3AP | 3rd person animate plural |
| - | - | 3IS | 3rd person inanimate singular |
| - | - | 3IP | 3rd person inanimate plural |
The Reciprocal suffix is - (-Rcp).
There are 2 kinds of auxiliary prefixes: modal and aspectual. When both kinds appear, the modal precedes the aspectual.
| Prefix | Tag | Name | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | NN- | natural necessity | modal |
| - | NP- | natural possibility | modal |
| - | - | begin process | aspectual |
| - | - | pause process | aspectual |
| - | - | resume process | aspectual |
| - | - | finish process | aspectual |
| - | - | continue | aspectual |
Names are predicates marked with either a person, thing, or place derivational suffix. The names of persons are animate and the names of things and places are inanimate. While place names are HAI (with a location suffix and locatee prefix), the names of persons and things are HUA and HUI, respectively, with a patient suffix denoting the subject and an optional agent prefix denoting the user of the name. Name stems may take other affixes, such as reciprocal and permanence.
| Suffix | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| - | -P | person |
| - | -T | thing |
| - | -L | place |
Cardinal numbers are quantity words. They're constructed using the decimal system. The 10 digits are:
| Root | Value |
|---|---|
| 0 | |
| 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 3 | |
| 4 | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | |
| 9 |
Numbers greater than 10 are formed as follows:
Factor Base Addend
Factor is omitted if 1 and Addend is omitted if 0. The maximum value for both is Base - 1. The possible values for Base are shown in the following table:
| Root | Value |
|---|---|
| 10 | |
| 100 |
All scalar derivations are in Scalar Morphosyntax. The derivational affixes, excluding scalar stem formants, are shown in the following table:
| Prefix | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|
| - | Inc- | Inchoative |
| - | Trm- | Terminative |
| - | Via- | Viative |
All derivational slots have unmarked alternatives. The affix slots appear in the following order:
Derivational-Stem
A compound Stem consists of 2 roots: a head and a modifier. The head root's 2nd axis class must be _AA, _AI, or _II while the modifier root's 2nd axis class must be _UU, _UA, _UI, or _AU. The resulting compound's 2nd axis class is one of the last 3. In a scalar compound, the head root, which must follow the modifier root, is scalar. For non-scalar compounds, both orders can occur. When the modifier root appears first, it replaces the agent argument, and when it appears last, it replaces the patient argument.
page started: 2015.Jan.27 Tue
current date: 2015.Feb.28 Sat
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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