Quiet Words

Project Pi Introduction

One of my goals for this language is to investigate the pragmatics of topicality (if that's the term) and related things. It's not intended to be a logical language. On the other hand, I haven't gone overbord to make it naturalistic.

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Morphology
Some Syntax
More Syntax
Adjectival and Adverbial Clauses
Noun Clauses
Purpose Clauses

A noun clause where a set of events is referred to is introduced by the proclitic conjunction ne. Examples:

bi-n-g-e ne-la-kamb-i.
1XS-Uns-want-Ind NE-Act.3AP-see-Sbj
"I want to see them."

tal ki-n-kamb-e ne-Jaano ji-li-comp-e Taamo?
Int 2XS-Uns-see-Ind NE-Act.John 3TS-3AS-hit-Ind Act.Tom
"Did you see John hit Tom?

Embedded yes/no questions are also introduced by ne and contain the question word tal. Example:

tal ki-n-hask-e ne-Jaano tal ji-li-comp-e Taamo?
Int 2XS-Uns-hear-Ind NE-Act.John Int 3TS-3AS-hit-Ind Act.Tom
"Did you hear whether John hit Tom?"

Embedded WH-questions begin with a WH-question word and don't use ne. Examples:

bi-n-????-e hûlo e-li-comp-e Taamo.
1XS-Uns-know-Ind who(m) Uns-3XS-hit-Ind Act.Tom
"I know who hit Tom."

bi-n-kamb-e hûso ji-ki-n-tân-e
1XS-Uns-see-Ind what 3TS-2XS-Uns-give-Ind
"I saw what she gave you."

Note that the latter is distinct from:

bi-n-kamb-e ji-ki-u-tân-e
1XS-Uns-see-Ind 3TS-2XS-Pas-give-Ind
"I saw the thing she gave you."

* I've been working on relative and participial clauses for my new conlang project. The participial clauses are used when a core argument is relativized. The participles are really finite forms using a null prefix if the subject is realtivized or u- if an object is relativized. There are different forms of the relative clauses depending on whether the clause is used adjectivally or adverbially.

* I reread Unwillingly to Earth by Pauline Ashwell and have started rereading Fallen Angels by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn.

* My stove is now working, so it's a matter of finding the rest of my dishes and getting some groceries.

* I still haven't moved anything yet, except for getting a few things from my car. I'm still getting my groceries from near where my car is parked. I think somebody took the almost dead battery from my car but haven't checked.

* I forgot to mention a while ago that I started reading The Andromeda Strain. Now I've started rereading The Color of Distance.

* Possibly "tree" is takpañ not takpa, and pañCVX means "plant" or "organism" and takC- is a static verb stem.

Last Edited: 2006.Nov.05 Sun

Some Adverbial Clauses

Sentences with time-when adverbial clauses and conditional sentences are related, being distinguished by the mood marking in the adverbial clause. Time-when clauses take the indicative mood, possible conditions take the subjunctive mood, and impossible conditions take the contrafactual mood. The time-when and condition clauses are introduced by an adverbial relative pronoun. Examples:

Jaano, un ji-sa-kamb-e takpa, ji-n-sael-e-s.
John, when 3TS-3IP-see-Ind tree, 3TS-Uns-sing-Ind-DefPst.
"John sang when he saw the trees."

Jaano, un ji-sa-kamb-i takpa, ji-n-sael-i-c.
John, when 3TS-3IP-see-Sbj tree, 3TS-Uns-sing-Sbj-DefFut.
"If John sees the trees, he will sing."

Jaano, un ji-sa-kamb-u takpa, ji-n-sael-u-s.
John, when 3TS-3IP-see-Ctf tree, 3TS-Uns-sing-Ctf-DefPst.
"If John had seen the trees, he would have sung."

Note that both time-when and condition clauses allow the definite past and future markers to be appended to the main verb. Note also that some other adverbial elements imply a time-when clause. Example:

Jaano, ji-n-sael-e-s lî-de markuz.
John, 3TS-Uns-sing-Ind-DefPst 3AS-Loc market.
"John sang [when he was] at the market."

Otherwise, the time is marked as indefinite and has to be determined from context. Example:

Jaano, ji-n-sael-e.
John, 3TS-Uns-sing-Ind.
"John sang/has sung/will sing."

The time-when verb can be habitual or iterative. Here's an example using present time:

Jaano, un ji-n-kamb-ahp-e takpa, ji-n-sael-e.
John, when 3TS-Uns-see-Habt-Ind tree, 3TS-Uns-sing-Ind.
"John sings whenever he sees a tree/trees."

Last Edited: 2006.Nov.09 Thu

Comparisons

There's no special comparative form (this assumes that only one quality word appears). The standard of comparison appears as the argument to an adverbial particle koi. Example:

biz takpa li-golp-e li-koi koz.
this/these tree 3OS-big.Ipf-Ind 3OS-KOI that/those.
"This tree is bigger than that one."

Possibly, there is also a long comparative form involving a dummy verb -st-, which would look something like:

biz takpa li-golp-e ûkoi li-st-e koz.
this/these tree 3OS-big.Ipf-Ind UKOI 3OS-DV-Ind that/those.
"This tree is bigger than that one."

To compare less than, either the arguments are reversed, or the word for the opposite quality is used.

There's also no special superlative form. The superlative construction is formed by placing the quality word plus the particle ix before a phrase, which is construed as being definite and plural. Example:

biz li-golp-e ix takpa.
this/these 3OS-big.Ipf-Ind IX tree.
"This is the biggest of the trees."

Topic and Focus

The topic precedes the sentence and is coreferenced with one of the 3P markers (ji(x)/ja(x)). Example:

Jaano, bi-ji-kamb-e.
John 1XS-3PS-see.Prf-Ind.
As for John, I saw him.

The focus usually follows one of the interrogative (tal), negative, or affirmative particles. Example:

ki-li-kamb-e tal Jaano?
2XS-3OS-see.Prf-Ind Int John?
"Was it John you saw?"

Note that 3OS- agrees with Jaano, which is definite. If the focus phrase were indefinite, Un2- would be used instead. Example:

ki-no-kamb-e tal takpa?
2XS-Un2-see.Prf-Ind Int tree?
"Was it a tree you saw?"

Question Words

The question words hûso "what" and hûlo "who(m)" take indefinite agreement. The question words appear first. Example:

hûso ki-no-kamb-e?
what 2XS-Un2-see.Prf-Ind?
"What did you see?"

Last Edited: 2006.Dec.03 Sun

Argument Roles

Project pi uses accusative pronoun alignment.
( Read more... )

Pronoun Prefixes

The referents of extended plurals include persons associated with the base referents, but which are not present. Note that the only way to form a 1st person exclusive plural is with the extended plural.
( Read more... )

The order of the pronoun prefixes is A1-A2-A3-Stem.

All inflected words are formed using these prefixes, including those that act syntactically like participles and infinitives.

Stem Formation

The form of the lexical verb stem is:
Root(-Aspects)-Mood(-TPoR)
where TPoR is Temporal Point of Reference.
Lexical noun stems consist only of roots and derivational suffixes.

Lexical verb roots are mostly CVCC or CVVC. Lexical noun stems are usually CVCCV(C) or CVVCV(C).
( Read more... )

The Permanent mood is used for forming semantic nouns from lexical verbs.

Aspect and Temporal Points of Reference

If no aspect is marked, the lexical verb is perfective for the 1st and 2nd classes and imperfective for the 3rd class. If no TPoR is appended, the time is determined from the context.
( Read more... )

Probably, absolute present time will instead be marked by an adverb men.

Sample Word Forms

bi-ki-kamb-al-e
1XS-2XS-see-Ipf-Ind
"I see you."

ji-ma-si-tân-e-s
3TS-1NP-3IS-give.Prf-Ind-Pst
"He gave it to us at that time."

ki-n-g-e
2XS-Un2-want.Ipf-Ind
"You want something."