A phrase is either a noun phrase or a pronoun. In general, the order of noun phrase constituents is:
(Determiner) (QuantityWord) (Genitive) (Modifiers) Noun
The QuantityWord is either a cardinal number or some other word specifying quantity, such as sam "many". Note that Noun here includes participial clauses lacking subject phrases, since these may be marked for number and case.
Genitive here is a genitive case phrase representing a possessor.
Modifiers are either participial clauses or relative clauses.
For indefinite phrases, no determiner is used. The proximal demonstrative may be used to indicate that an indefinite phrase is specific instead of indicating nearness to the speaker. The distal demonstrative is used for entities not present.
| Determiner | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| da | Def | definite article |
| sī | Prox | proximal demonstrative |
| dū | Medi | medial demonstrative |
| lā | Dist | distal demonstrative |
| cē | CQ | content question |
| nē | Exi | existential quantifier |
| parē | Uni | universal quantifier |
| dalē | Sat | satisfactive |
The placement of genitive phrases results in potential ambiguity regarding which nouns are modified by determiners and quantity words. Some rules for resolving this follow:
If the possessor is pronominal or a proper noun, it may appear in the determiner position instead; these phrases are automatically definite.
In addition to the pronouns given in Morphology, there are phrases which appear in place of pronouns. These consists of a demonstrative determiner plus a generic noun.
| Word | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| be | AS | generic animate singular |
| no | IS | generic inanimate singular |
| zo | M | generic inanimate mass |
| bec | AP | generic animate plural |
| noc | IP | generic inanimate plural |
The general nouns are derived from the generic nouns and represent kinds of entities. They head phrases, appearing immediately after the base noun, which has the absolutive singular (i.e. 0-marked) form.
| Word | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| bā | GAS | general animate singular |
| nō | GIS | general inanimate singular |
| zē | GMS | general mass, singular |
| beho | GAP | general animate plural |
| noho | GIP | general inanimate plural |
| ziho | GMP | general mass, plural |
A partitive case phrase denotes the whole from which a part is selected. When one appears, the containing phrase is either a superlative, ordinal, partitive, or distributive construction, denoting the part. In each type, no additional modifier (other than a quantity word) may appear after the partitive case marker. The constructions mainly differ in what they use as the noun denoting the part:
The noun denoting the part has the same gender as the noun denoting the whole (which is either plural or a mass noun); this means that if the partitive case noun is adverbial, the noun denoting the part will be the same kind of adverbial.
Certain kinds of adverbial constructions are actually lexically oblique noun phrases. These phrases can't be used as core arguments, since the absolutive forms are adverbial. However, topical and genitive forms may be used.
The kinds of oblique or adverbial nouns include the manner adverb bon, the duration adverb fan, the iteration count adverb hok, the occasion count adverb tal, the adverbs of specific degree (units), and the temporal or time when adverbs.
For some adjectival verbs, the adverbial form can replace the verb + bon construction.
The order of the core clause constituents is:
Objects Verb Subject
where Subject is (if it appears) a phrase representing a subject, agent, or donor and Objects is (if it appears) 1 or 2 phrases representing a location, patient, recipient, and/or theme. Where both object phrases appear, either order is possible.
In clauses of definition and identity, the complement precedes the subject. The copula h (Cop) is used only under the following conditions:
The specified core or oblique argument of the participial clause coreferences the head noun of the phrase, as does the relative pronoun (RP) of a relative clause.
The following table shows the tenses implied by the aspects in different kinds of clauses. The secondary clauses include attributive participial clauses, temporal adjunct clauses, and complement clauses except for direct reported speech. The primary clauses include main clauses, relative clauses, and direct reported speech. A conjunct clause has the same kind of usage as the clause it's conjoined to.
| Tag | Aspect | Secondary | Primary | Command |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dur | Durative | relative present | absolute present* | future durative |
| Aor | Aoristic | relative present | definite past | immediate |
| Prf | Retrospective | relative past | indefinite past | future retrospective |
| Fut | Prospective | relative future | either future | future prospective (rare) |
| Hab | Habitual | relative present | absolute present* | future habitual |
The habitual represents a series of events, rather than a simple situation.
The verb of a temporal adjunct clause is a temporal participle if the clause is coreferential and a temporal action nominal if not. The aspect of the adjunct verb determines the temporal relationship between the adjunct situation and the host situation. The usual host verb aspect is also shown.
| Tag | Aspect | Relationship | Host Aspect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aor | Aoristic | adjunct during host | habitual or durative* |
| Dur | Durative | host during adjunct | aoristic, future, or habitual |
| Prf | Retrospective | host after adjunct | |
| Fut | Prospective | host before adjunct | |
| Hab | Habitual | host during adjunct | aoristic or future |
There's no special syntax for depictive secondary predicates; a temporal adjunct clause with durative aspect on the participle is used.
Participial clauses with aoristic aspect are used for resultative secondary predicates. A resultative always coreferences the host clause's semantic patient (which may be the agent of an extended verb).
A complement clause replaces the patient or theme of its matrix clause, appearing first. The possible matrix verbs include modal auxiliaries, aspectual auxiliaries, causatives, perception and mental state verbs, and verbs of reporting or asking.
The basic function of an action nominal is to make its clause into a (definite) noun. However, it substitutes for a finite verb in order to mark a verb with a 3rd person subject non-coreferential.
The modal particles are originally verbs, but have the form of particles, so the logically subordinate clause is not a complement clause. However, the modal particle follows the clause, just as an auxiliary verb would.
| Word | Tag | Description | Glosses |
|---|---|---|---|
| ? | Wit | direct evidential, such as witnessed | |
| ? | Hrs | indirect evidential, such as hearsay | |
| dok | EN | Epistemic Necessity | must |
| ? | EP | Epistemic Possibility | might |
| gec | SN | Social Necessity | supposed to |
There are 2 types of coreferential auxiliaries: modal and aspectual. The complement verb is a participle with positive polarity and aoristic aspect; the auxiliary verb marks polarity and aspect along with the remaining argument, as subject to the auxiliary.
| Verb | Tag | Description | Glosses | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sim | NN | Natural Necessity | inevitable | modal |
| tap | NP | Natural Possibility | can, able to | |
| ? | Inc? | inceptive | begin | process phase |
| ? | Pau? | pausative | pause | |
| ? | Res? | resumptive | resume | |
| ? | Com? | completive | finish | |
| ? | Cont? | continuative | continue | other aspectual |
| ? | Iter? | iterative | repeat |
The deontic and volitive may also be coreferential, but when they aren't, the complement verb is either finite or an action nominal. Polarity and aspect are marked on the auxiliary verb (the complement verb always has positive polarity and aoristic aspect), along with a subject representing the requirer, permitter, desirer, or accepter. Note that negation here may be, depending on the gloss, different from English; in all cases, the auxiliary is negated not the complement. Translation may require the following logic:
Necessity (not X) <=> not Possibility (X), Possibility (not X) <=> not Necessity (X).
| Verb | Tag | Description | Glosses | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| kot | DN | Deontic Necessity | require, must | need |
| mes | DP | Deontic Possibility | permit, may | can use |
| lū, lov | VN | Volitive Necessity | want to | like, want |
| tæ, te | VP | Volitive Possibility | accept | OK with |
In addition to the auxiliary usage described above, these verbs have secondary usages, appearing after phrases and non-aoristic complements. The interpretations for the secondary usages are shown in the 2nd column of glosses above, while the auxiliary interpretations are shown in the 1st column.
With other matrix verbs, the complement verbs can be fully inflected as well as the matrix verb.
Verbs of perception are evidentially direct when the complement verb's aspect is durative or aoristic and evidentially indirect when the complement verb's aspect is retrospective or prospective.
Since wishes are contrafactual, the complement clause of a wish ends with the modal particle gec (SN).
Polar questions are marked by the polar question particle ci (PQ) placed at the end of a primary clause.
Content questions are distinguished by the presence of a content question word, such as the content question determiner (CQ).
A conditional sentence consists of a condition followed by a conclusion. The verb of the condition is a conditional form. The conclusion and condition are either possible, containing the epistemic necessity particle dok (EN), or impossible, containing the social necessity particle gec (SN).
A satisfactive sentence consists of a satisfactive part and a result part. The satisfactive part must contain one of the satisfactive words, such as dayô "so, enough". The result part may be a conditional sentence; however, the condition is usually omitted. It may instead be a sentence with an expressed or implied "when" clause.
A comparative clause contains a scale of comparison, a direction of comparison, a subject of comparison, a standard of comparison, and a degree of comparison.
The scale of comparison is an adjectival verb preceded by an adverb specifying the direction of comparison (hai more than, less then, or equal to). The scale of comparison doesn't have to be the main verb of the clause; it can also be an adverb of manner, a participle, or a secondary predicate.
The subject of comparison represents what's being compared and isn't necessarily the subject of the clause. What it's compared to is represented by the standard of comparison which is either implicit or a phrase followed by the verb form tax. If implicit, the subject of comparison is possibly being compared to its former self.
The degree of comparison is an optional element specifying how much the subject of comparison differs from the standard. It's expressed in terms of either a quantity word plus a noun designating a unit or as a non-specific quantity, such as "very". A degree of comparison expression could also be applied to a superlative or to an absolute positive.
Contrastive focus is when an element consists of 2 focused alternatives, one negative and the other affirmative. One of these alternatives must be explicit; the other can be explicit or implicit. The element can be either a phrase or a verb. If a focused phrase is pronominal, a pronoun is used with 3rd person agreement instead of any personal affix. Also, non-negated pronouns are implicitly affirmative.
The topical case and the vocative case are used for indicating topics and the addressee(s), respectively. Both are extra-clausal. A topic phrase can appear only at the start of a clause, while a vocative phrase can be inserted before the clause, after the clause, or between constituents.
page started: 2014.Jul.30 Wed
current date: 2014.Aug.11 Mon
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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