Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".
The phrase syntax procedes from whole to part while clauses are generally PVA/VS.
Each phrase begins with a hive identifier, roughly analogous to person. Hive type 3 must be followed by the name of the hive, to complete the identifier.
| Word | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| - | 0 | hiveless or unknown |
| - | 1 | the speaker's hive |
| - | 2 | the addressee's hive (if not the speaker's) |
| - | 3 | any other known hive |
Each hive is a heterogenous set of active and passive assets. The hive identifier is usually followed by words selecting subsets or elements of the hive's assets. These words include nouns, adjectives and participles, superlatives and ordinals and determiners, quantity words, and relational words.
A noun selects a particular class of assets. It may be further qualified by successive adjectives and/or participles.
If no determiner, superlative, or ordinal number appears, universal quantification of the phrase is assumed. The following table shows the determiners along with approximate equivalents:
| Word | Tag | Description | Glosses |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | Prox | proximal | "this/these" |
| - | Medi | medial | "that/those" |
| - | Dist | distal | "yon" |
| - | Q | interrogative | "which" |
| - | Ind | indefinite | "a(n)", "some" |
| - | Def | anaphoric | "the" |
| - | Rel | relative | |
| - | NR | non-referential |
Unless the non-referential determiner appears (or none), a quantity word (specifying the cardinality of the phrase's referent) may follow the determiner, superlative, or ordinal number. The singular marker indicates that a single element is specified by the phrase; anything else in this position (or nothing) indicates that the phrase specifies a non-empty non-singular subset.
A relational word selects those assets of the same hive that are in a particular relation to the referent of the preceding part of the phrase. It may be followed by additional phrase-building words.
A typical clause contains a verb, which is followed by an S-argument and possibly preceded by a P-argument. The mode, if specified appears after the S-argument. With respect to the argument roles, the types of clauses are:
| P-Argument | Verb | S-Argument |
|---|---|---|
| identity | copula | subject |
| definition | copula | subject |
| adjective | copula | descriptee |
| relational-terminated phrase | copula | locatee |
| patient | verb | agent |
Each required argument is either a phrase or a pronoun. The pronouns are:
| Word | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| - | U | unspecified |
| - | Rfx | reflexive |
| - | Cor | correlative |
| - | X1 | index 1 |
| - | X2 | index 2 |
In an identity clause, the S-argument and the P-argument have the same referent. The verb Id is used. In a definition clause, the referent of the S-argument is a subset of that of the P-argument. The enclitic verb V is used.
For existence, no verb is used; only a single phrase.
Identity clauses may be used for focusing.
An adverbial phrase is a phrase or pronoun followed by an adverbial particle. It appears at the start of its matrix clause. There may be more than 1 adverbial phrase in a clause.
Comparative and equative constructions compare a subject of comparison to a standard of comparison with respect to a scale of comparison, which is represented by an adjective or a scalar relational word. The standard appears as an adverbial phrase. A comparative is concerned with whether the subject of comparison is greater than the standard and uses the adverbial particle Cmp. An equative is concerned with whether they're equal and uses the adverbial particle Equ. The degree of comparison is an optional adverbial phrase specifying the difference in quality between the subject and standard; it uses the adverbial particle Deg.
In a temporal comparison, the standard of comparison is either the pronoun referring to an earlier specific time or the pronoun referring to a later specific time.
For a verb to be syntactically trivalent (such as "inform"), the 3rd argument (theme) must be represented by a complement clause or a discourse pronoun. "X gives Y to Z" is translated as "Z acquires Y that X gives away".
An index is a method of coreference that can be used across multiple clauses. The index definition word follows the phrase the first time its referent is needed and the index pronoun appears for all subsequent references.
Indexed phrases tend to be topical.
The final and the preceding coordinate clauses form the main sequence. Indexes are used for coreference. The final clause may be followed by the polar question particle PQ provided that the clause isn't a content question. Coordinate clauses are always followed by coordinating conjunctions, which are shown in the following table:
| Word | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| - | - | - |
A subordinate clause appears before (usually immediately) its host clause. The kinds of subordinate clauses are adjunct, complement, and relative clause. Note that each of these uses a different method for coreference.
An adjunct clause is a preposed adverbial clause. Any coreference with its host clause is handled using indexes. Each adjunct clause is followed by one of the subordinating conjunctions, shown in the table below. For the temporal conjunctions (Aft, Bef, and Tmp), the 1st gloss is appropriate for telic adjunct clauses and the 2nd for non-telic ones.
| Word | Tag | Gloss or Description |
|---|---|---|
| - | Aft | "after", "when no longer" |
| - | Bef | "before", "when not yet" |
| - | Tmp | "when", "while (during)" |
| - | - | purpose |
| - | - | means |
| - | - | cause, reason |
A complement clause precedes its host clause. It appears as the theme if the host clause verb is trivalent and otherwise replaces the P-argument. If the S-argument of the host clause coreferences a complement clause argument, the cataphoric pronoun Cat appears in the complement clause. With some host clause verbs, the complement clause has future mode.
Resultatives are complement clauses.
Like other subordinate clauses, relative clauses are preposed, not embedded, and are correlative internally headed clauses (i.e. the head phrase appears within the relative clause rather than the following host clause). The determiner Rel marks the head phrase of the relative clause. The pronoun Cor appears within the host clause to mark the head phrase's role there.
The usage of the modes are as follows:
The relevent hive is type 1 except in question addressed to another hive, in which case it's type 2.
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. The time of an aoristic clause is definite. When the verb has the experiential aspect (Exp), it represents a situation that occurs at an indefinite time, possibly on multiple occasions.
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:
| Tag | Aspect | Static | Dynamic | Telic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prf | Perfect-stative | stative | perfect | perfect |
| Pro | Progressive-prospective | (inchoative) progressive | progressive | prospective |
| Aor | Aoristic | (inchoative) aoristic | aoristic | aoristic |
| Exp | Experiential | stative experiential | experiential | experiential |
Things that force the tense of a verb to be non-present include 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.
When the verb is negated, only the semantic predicate is affected, not the universal or existential quantification whose scope contains the predicate. The mode of the clause isn't affected by negation of the verb.
page started: 2017.Apr.25 Tue
current date: 2017.Apr.27 Thu
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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