May28 –  A Constructed Language

May28 Usage

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

Usage

Person and Number Terminology

The following non-standard terminology is used here:

• 1 1st person singular refers here to the speaker only.
• 1A 1st person plural refers here to the speaker and 1 or more others, excluding addressees (this is an associative plural).
• 2 2nd person refers to the addressee(s) and excludes the speaker (may also be associative when plural).
• K K person refers to the addressee in questions and the speaker in statements.
• Incl Inclusive person refers to the union of the 1st and 2nd persons (speaker, addressee(s), and possibly others).
• 3 3rd person proximate refers to anyone or anything except the speaker and addressee(s).
• 4 3rd person obviative is like 3 but refers to a different set of entities.

Voice Usage

Voice Usage

Tag	Name	Agent	Patient
	Direct	proximate	obviative
	Inverse	obviative	proximate
Ant	Antipassive	proximate	none
Pas	Passive	none	proximate
Rfx	Reflexive	proximate

Modals

The usage of the modal particles is as follows:

• The unmarked participant mode is used when the relevent hive participates in the situation the event.
• The direct evidential modal Wit is used when the relevent hive reliably witnesses the situation.
• The indirect evidential modal Hrs is used for hearsay or general knowledge.
• The epistemic necessity modal EN involves deduction.
• The future modal Fut is predictive.
• The potential modal Pot specifies possibility.
• The physical necessity modal Nec specifies need.
• The hypothetical modal Hyp is used for hypothetical situations.

The relevent hive is type 1 except in question addressed to another hive, in which case it's type 2.

Aspects

There are actually 9 semantic aspects, even though there are only 6 aspect markers. The descriptions of the aspects follow:

• The longterm aspect is used for a set of characteristics which persists over a long time, possibly for the lifetime of the described entity.
• The habitual aspect indicates that the characteristics apply on a series of occasions, which may be expected to continue.
• When the verb has the experiential aspect, it represents a situation that has occurred at an indefinite time, possibly on multiple occasions.
• When the verb has the perfect aspect, it represents a state resulting from a prior event.
• When the verb has the stative aspect, it represents a state without implying a prior event.
• When the verb has the aoristic aspect, 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 progressive aspect, it represents an event in progress.
• When the verb has the prospective aspect, it represents a state from which a subsequent event is expected to emerge.
• When the verb has the eventual aspect, it represents a situation that will occur at an indefinite time, possibly on multiple occasions.

The aspects markers are matched to the semantic aspects as follows:

• The habitual-longterm aspect marker (Hab) is used for both habitual and longterm aspects, as these are never distinguished here.
• The perfect aspect marker (Prf) is used for the stative aspect for verbs of the habitual-longterm action type; otherwise it's used for the perfect aspect.
• The prospective aspect is marked by the progressive aspect marker (Prg) for verbs of the habitual-longterm and static action types; it's marked by the eventual aspect marker (Eve) for verbs of the dynamic and telic action types. Otherwise, the progressive and eventual aspect markers are used for the progressive and eventual aspects, respectively.
• The aoristic aspect marker (Aor) is used for the aoristic aspect.
• The experiential aspect marker (Exp) is used for the experiential aspect.

Determining Time

Things that force the time 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 modality have future time when non-present while verbs with other modalities have past time when non-present. Unless overridden, verbs with aspects other than aoristic have present time.

Polarity

When the verb is negated, only the semantic predicate is affected, not the universal or existential quantification whose scope contains the predicate. The modality of the sentence is also not affected by negation of the verb.

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

Table of Contents