May28 –  A Constructed Language

May28 Syntax

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

Syntax Overview

The syntax is generally head-modifier with syntatical verbs preceding their arguments.

Sentences

The initial clause and the following coordinate clauses form the main sequence while a subordinate clause depends on some preceding host or matrix clause. The kinds of subordinate clauses are adjunct clauses and complement clauses. Imperative verb forms may appear only as heads of main sequence clauses and subjunctive verb forms appear only as heads of complement clauses; otherwise, verb forms are indicative.

Initial Clauses

An initial clause is heqaded by either an indicative verb form or an imperative one. The initial clause may be preceded by the polar question particle či PQ provided that the clause doesn't contain a content question word and isn't headed by an imperative form.

Coordinate Clauses

Null arguments are used when a coordinate clause argument coreferences an argument of the preceding main sequence clause. Coordinate clauses are always preceded by coordinating conjunctions, which are shown in the following table:

Coordinating Conjunctions

Word	Tag	Description
-	And	conjunction
-	Or	disjunction

Adjunct Clauses

An adjunct clause is an optional adverbial clause and follows its host clause. Each adjunct clause is preceded 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.

Subordinating Conjunctions

Word	Tag	Gloss or Description
-	Aft	"after", "when no longer"
-	Bef	"before", "when not yet"
na	Tmp	"when", "while (during)"
-	-	purpose
-	-	means
-	-	cause, reason

Complement Clauses

A complement clause is headed by a subjunctive verb form and may appear in addition to the matrix clause's argument phrase (if any). Since the complement clause takes the role of the patient (except with a very small number of trivalent verbs where it takes the theme role), any argument phrase must agree with the agent. If the agent of the matrix verb agrees with an argument of the complement clause verb and that argument is not otherwise expressed in the complement clause, coreference occurs.

sibi lehāšo.
sib-i	le-hās-yo
want-1S/3	Cpl-help-1S/2
"I want to help you."

Clause Structure

A clause contains a head verb and possibly an argument phrase following it; it may also contain adverbs. Although many verbs are bivalent, at most 1 argument may be expressed as a phrase. For direct or inverse verbs, this defaults to the obviative (which may be overridden by relative clause agreement). A 3rd person proximate argument must be established in an earlier clause, or topicalized.

gotogi.
go-tog-i
Aor-see-1S/3
"I saw them."

gohāso ter daša šoxa.
go-hās-o	te=r	daš-a	šox-a
Aor-help-2/3	Def=Du	woman-3	old-3
"You helped the 2 old women."

Argument Number

1st person arguments are either singular (1) or dual-paucal-plural (1A). Inclusive person arguments (Incl) are also dual-paucal-plural. 2nd person arguments (2) have unspecfied number. The number of a 3rd person argument (3) is specified by the quantity word in the corresponding argument phrase, whether in the same clause or in an earlier one. Occasionally, non-restrictive non-3rd person argument phrases appear specifying number, along with other things.

Prepositional Phrases

A prepositional phrase is an optional adverbial phrase introduced by a prepositional particle. It appears after the clause's argument phrase, if any, and before any complement clause. There may be more than 1 prepositional phrase in a clause.

Prepositions

Word	Tag	Name
pi	Obl	Oblique
kin	Cmp	Comparative
?	Equ	Equative
?	Top?	Proximate?

metlēba dīs ma pi has paiça.
me-tlēb-a	dī=s	m-a	pi	ha=s	paiç-a
Eve-feed-3/3	Prox=Pl	Anim-3	Ins	Ind=Pl	corn-3
"They will feed these with lots of corn."

Phrases

A phrase must contain a determiner or pronoun, optionally followed by a quantity word (if no quantity word appears, the number is singular). If the phrase is headed by a determiner, there must be at least 1 relative clause following the quantity word position. At most 1 of the relative clauses may be headed by a bivalent verb; that clause must appear last. Otherwise, the order of relative clauses is determined by focus, with the focused univalent relative clause appearing after the others.

Pronouns

Determiners

The following table shows the determiners along with approximate equivalents:

Determiners

Word	Tag	Description	Glosses
dī	Prox	proximal	"this/these"
sō	Medi	medial	"that/those"
lā	Dist	distal	"yon"
čā	Q	interrogative	"which"
ha	Ind	indefinite	"a(n)", "some"
te	Def	definite	"the"
'on	NR	non-referential	"any"

Quantity Words

The dual, paucal, and plural markers are enclitic quantity words; the singular is unmarked. The quantity word "how many" is also enclitic. Other quantity words are independent.

Enclitic Quantity Words

Word	Tag	Name
r(i)	Du	Dual
k	Pc	Paucal
s	Pl	Plural
č	NQ	Content Question

Relative Clauses

Each relative clause is embedded in a phrase appearing within a matrix clause and always coreferences the matrix verb argument corresponding to that phrase. Hence, there must be person and number agreement between the 2 verbs. The non-coreferential argument of the relative clause may appear as an argument phrase. Relative clauses may not contain prepositional phrases or host subordinate clauses.

Examples

In the 1st example, daš·a "woman" is the most contrastive word while in the 2nd one, rant·a "large" is the most contrastive.

hak šoxa daša
ha=k	šox-a	daš-a
Ind=Pc	old-3	woman-3
"a few old women"

sō nera ranta
sō	ner-a	rant-a
Medi	bird-3	large-3
"that large bird"

In the next example, a bivalent relative clause (headed by hās·a "help") appears; note that daša and the proximate argument of hāsa agree with the obviative argument of tāfi and that nera and ranta agree with the obviative argument of hāsa.

tāfi te daša hāsa hak nera ranta.
tāf-i	te	daš-a	hās-a	ha=k	ner-a	rant-a
recognize-1S/3	Def	woman-3	help-3/3	Ind=Pc	bird-3	large-3
"I recognize the woman that's helping some large birds."

Here's an example with non-3rd person agreement:

hošū has xrāyū.
hos-yū	ha=s	xraw-yū
many-1A	Ind=Pl	crow-1A
"We who are crows are numerous."

Additional Syntax

Pronominal Verbs

The independent person markers and the content question markers are verbs, shown in the following table:

Pronominal Verbs

Word	Tag	Description
mis·a	B1	1st person
nus·a	B2	2nd person
'or·a	BIncl	Inclusive person
tew·a	B3	3rd person
haw·a	B0	Indefinite
čōg·a	QId	content question, specific
čēr·a	QDf	content question, generic

čōgo?
čōg-o
who-2
"Who are you?"

Identity, Definition, and Existence

For existence, the univalent verb haw·a "exist" is used as the head of the clause.

gohawa ha daša.
go-haw-a	ha	daš-a
Aor-exist-3	Ind	woman-3
"There was a woman."

For definitions where the predicate is a single verb, that verb can be used as the head of the clause with the subject being expressed as its argument.

daša te fihāsa tes nera.
daš-a	te	fi-hās-a	te=s	ner-a
woman-3	Def	Hab-help-3/3	Def=Pl	bird-3
"The one that helps the birds is a woman."

For other definition clauses, and all identity clauses, the anaphoric (3rd person) pronominal verb B3 is used as the head with the predicate expressed as its argument.

či tewa tek gotogo?
či	tew-a	te=k	go-tog-o
PQ	B3-4	Def=Pc	Aor-see-2/4
"Are they the ones you saw?"

Since B3 is univalent, it can't take a proximate argument; instead, its referent must be established in a preceding clause.

hawa on xrawa, tewa on ranta nera.
haw-a	on	xraw-a	tew-a	on	rant-a	ner-a
B0-3	NR	crow-3	B3-4	NR	large-4	bird-4
"A crow is a large bird."

Trivalent Verbs

For certain trivalent verbs (such as "inform"), the theme argument can only be expressed by a complement clause. If none appears, the theme is refers to something already expressed (anaphoric theme).

Giving is expressed by the recipient acquiring the theme possessed by the donor.

Other trivalent verbs must use prepositional phrases.

gotlēba lās nera pi has sāpaiça.
go-tlēb-a	lā=s	ner-a	pi	ha=s	sā-paiç-a
Aor-feed-3/3	Dist=Pl	bird-3	Obl	Ind=Pl	Coll-corn-3
"They fed those birds with many ears of corn."

Possessive and Partitive Constructions

For certain bivalent verbs, such as body part and kinship terms, the agent is semantically an obligatory possessor. There are a number of other bivalent verbs where the agent is effectively a possessor; these are used to specify possession for other phrases.

gotogi te māmo.
go-tok-i	te	mām-o
Aor-see-1S/3	Def	mother-2/3
"I saw your mother."

māmo dī daša.
mām-o	dī	daš-a
mother-2/3	Prox	woman-3
"This woman is your mother."

There's also a bivalent verb sim·a Part used for partitive constructions where the agent specifies the whole. This verb is preceded by the indefinite determiner Ind. However, the partitive is implied when a possessor is specified.

gotlēbyū hak sima tes nera.
go-tlēb-yū	ha=k	sim-a	te=s	ner-a
Aor-feed-1A/3	Ind=Pc	part-3/3	Def=Pl	bird-3
"We fed a few of the birds."

metlēbi ha lago nera.
me-tlēb-i	ha	lag-o	ner-a
Eve-feed-1S/3	Ind	Poss-2/3	bird-3
"I will feed 1 of your birds."

Superlative Constructions

In a superlative construction, the scalar verb is inserted into a partitive construction as a modifier of the part with the indefinite article replaced by a definite one. In this case, sim·a Part must be used, even with possessives.

bengotāfi te šoxa sima tek daša.
ben-go-tāf-i	te	šox-a	sim-a	te=k	daš-a
Neg-Aor-recognize-1S/3	Def	old-3	part-3/3	Def=Pc	woman-3
"I didn't recognize the oldest of the women."

Ordinal Numbers

Ordinal numbers are bivalent verbs such that the agent argument is used for the whole and the patient for the part, so sim·a Part isn't needed.

hatogi te yokšina tek lago nera.
ha-tog-i	te	yok-šin-a	te=k	lag-o	ner-a
Prf-see-1S/3	Def	Ord-"1"-3/3	Def=Pc	Poss-2/3	bird-3
"I've seen the 1st of your birds."

Comparatives and Equatives

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 a scalar verb. The standard appears as a prepositional phrase. A comparative is concerned with whether the subject of comparison is greater than the standard and uses the prepositional particle kin Cmp. An equative is concerned with whether they're equal and uses the prepositional particle Equ. The degree of comparison is an optional prepositional phrase specifying the difference in quality between the subject and standard; it uses the adverbial particle Deg.

fimiňa te kara kin te xrila.
fi-miň-a	te	kar-a	kin	te	xril-a
Hab-small-3	Def	cockroach-3	Cmp	Def	lizard-3
"The cockroach is smaller than the lizard."

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.

Translating Secondary Predicates

In English, secondary predicates (including prepostional phrases) are used for depictives and resultatives. In May28, these are expressed by subordinate clause constructions.

A resultative specifies a situation resulting from some event. The result part is expressed using a complement clause:

gohāšū te daša šoxa legotaba te šola.
go-hās-yū	te	daš-a	šox-a	le=go-tab-a	te	šol-a
Aor-help-1A/3	Def	woman-3	old-3	Cpl=Aor-in-3/3	Def	house-3
"We helped the old woman into the house."

A depictive specifies a situation current for some event. The situation is expressed using a temporal adjunct clause:

gotogi te nera ranta na taba te šola.
go-tog-i	te	ner-a	rant-a	na	tab-a	te	šol-a
Aor-see-1S/3	Def	bird-3	large-3	Tmp	in-3/3	Def	house-3
"I saw the large bird in the house."

page started: 2017.Jun.05 Mon
current date: 2017.Jun.07 Wed
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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