Noimi Notes: Actant Morphosyntax Part 1
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Notes On A New Language Project "Noimi"
ZActa.TXT, Part 1 -- qiihoskeh
2005.Apr.20 -- file started
2005.Aug.07 -- current
This version of Noimi has ditransitive verboids.
ACTANT/ARGUMENT AGREEMENT MORPHOSYNTAX
Notation
R1, R2, and R3 refer to roles. A1, A2, and A3 are actant slots. N2 is a
direction slot. The order of morphemes, except where indicated, is:
A2 Stem N2 A3 A1
The argument structure for a particular word or class is specified using the
form:
G1 [ [ x G3 ] x G2 ]
where G1, G2, and G3 specify the possible genders for the corresponding
actants. The gender abbreviations are:
A Animate
I Inanimate
S Situational
and are separated by slashes. Example:
S/I/A x A A1 can take any gender and A2 is always animate; A3
doesn't occur.
Some more terminology/notation:
V=1 "Intransitive" (G1)
V=2 "Transitive" (G1 x G2)
V=3 "Ditransitive" (G1 x G3 x G2)
Interlinear Tags
The interlinear tags for prefixes have trailing hyphens (Prefix-) and those
for suffixes have leading hyphens (-Suffix). If there is no manifest marker
for the tag, a period is used instead of the hyphen (NoPref. and .NoSuff).
These are also enclosed by widgets ({.NoSuff}).
Summary of Tags:
Actant Tags
Contextual
1X- 1st person eXclusive
2X- 2nd person eXclusive
2N- 2nd person iNclusive
3P- 3rd person definite, animate OR inanimate (A2)
-3A 3rd person definite, animate (A1 or A3)
-3I3 3rd person definite, inanimate (A3)
-3I 3rd person definite, inanimate (A1)
-3S 3rd person definite, situational (A1)
Coreferential (within same clause)
-Ani coreferences head's Animate argument (A1 ?)
{.Ani} coreferences head's Animate argument (A1 ?)
-Ina coreferences head's Inanimate argument (A1)
{.Ina} coreferences head's Inanimate argument (A1)
-Sit coreferences head's Situational argument (A1)
COA- Coreferences head's Other Animate argument (A2)
-COI Coreferences head's Other Inanimate argument (A3)
CAP- Coreferences Auxiliary's R2 Argument (proposed)
-CAA Coreferences Auxiliary's R2 Argument (proposed)
Local (within same component)
-3E 3rd person Explicit (A1 or A3)
.3E1 3rd person Explicit (A1)
3E2. 3rd person Explicit (A2)
-Aux 3rd person Construct, situational
Other
.Un3 Unspecified (no referent; no phrase possible)
-Un1 Unspecified (no referent; no phrase possible)
Un2- Unspecified (no referent; no phrase possible)
Valence Reduction Tags
-Rfx Reflexive (one argument has two roles)
1>2- marks one actant as 1X and another as 2X
NOTE: Possibly the 1>2 marker will be replaced with a combination of 1X- and
-2O, where -2O occurs only with 1X-, or, similarly, with a combination
of 2X- and -1O. The former of the replacements accords with the common
scheme, being based on discourse hierarchy, while the latter makes the
Imperative mood simpler.
Direction Tags (N2)
{.D} direct V=3: R2 = A2, R3 = A3, r1 = a1
V=2: R2 = A2, R1 = A1
-Inv inverse V=3: R2 = A3, R3 = A2, r1 = a1
V=2: R2 = A1, R1 = A2
-Mut mutual (reciprocal) = {D} AND Inv
There may be words, such as locationals, where the inverse form is the
unmarked form and the direct form is marked. Alternately, these words
describe R2 in terms of R1 rather than vice versa.
Note that with reciprocals, it doesn't matter which of the 2 arguments
is A2 and which is A3 (or A1, if V=2).
Usage of Tags:
Local:
-3E#- The argument (a corresponding phrase must occur) is either
indefinite (new information) or focused (contrasting) or both.
A form with any of these markers is sometimes called the
Construct/Contrasting/Cataphoric form.
-Aux The argument refers to a situation, which must be represented
by a (primitive) clause. This makes the word-form act as an
auxiliary.
Note: The tag -Aux may be misleading in some cases, somce the actual
meaning depends on the class of verbs. For example, if applied
to a locational, it refers to the _location_ of the situation
designated by the clause. If applied to some action word, the
clause may refer to the _result_ of the action.
Coreferential:
These refer to arguments occurring elsewhere in the clause (those of
some head word). They have several uses and interpretations:
* share an argument
* make a verboid into a noun
* override the normal gender of a nominoid, for purposes of
agreement (-Ina and -Ani only)
* act as reflexive possessive marker (COA- only ???)
-Sit The resulting noun? refers to situation.
-Ina The resulting noun? refers to an inanimate. Can also be
applied to an animate nominoid to make it agree with an
inanimate argument.
-Ani The resulting noun? refers to an animate. Can also be applied
to an inanimate nominoid to make it agree with an animate
argument.
-COI Coreferences some inanimate argument of the verb NOT
containing this word instance.
COA- Coreferences some animate argument of the verb NOT containing
this word instance.
/ verboid: nominalizes when A1 = -3S or -3I, with word referring
/ to animate
Possibly occurs only with -Sit, -Ina, or -Ani; if the word is
ditransitive, possibly only with -Ani.
The head word can be a verb, a coverb, or a noun. The last occurs only
if the word is part of a required argument phrase of the noun.
-CA#- These are used in the clause whose situation is referenced by
the nearest word marked with -Aux, usually on the head word.
If the coreferencing word also has a 1st or 2nd person marker,
-CAA is used. If the coreferencing word also has -Aux and is
transitive, CAP- is used.
In other cases, this scheme might be used: transitive words
take CAP- if A1 can't be animate and otherwise -CAA; ditrans-
itive take CAP- if A3 is inanimate and otherwise -CAA.
Contextual 3rd person:
Can be used when the argument is definite (usually anaphoric or
proper). A correponding argument phrase isn't necessary.
-3S There can never be a correponding argument phrase.
3P- Animate, except for I x I nominoids.
Note: when -3A, -3I, -3I3, or 3P- occurs with -Sit, -Ina, -COI, -Ani,
or COA-, it's not clear if a corresponding argument phrase may be
present.
Note: Possibly replace any description which is in terms of "noun" and
"nominalization".
Valence Reduction
-Rfx
V=3: R2 = A2 and R3 = A2;
preempts A3 and Direction (N2).
V=2: R2 = A1 and R1 = A1;
preempts A1 and Direction (N2);
derives a V=1 stem, but inanimate usage is rare.
1>2- A2 = 1X;
V=3: A3 = 2X;
preempts A3 and A2.
V=2: A1 = 2X;
preempts A1 and A2.
Possibly, 1X and 2X argument-role mapping will be reversed.
Not Quite Person and Number
Limited and Extended Personal Referents:
The basic referent of personal (i.e. 1st and 2nd person) markers are as
follows:
1X speaker(s) (at least 1, but usually only 1)
2X addressee(s) (at least 1)
2N union of 1X referents and 2X referents
The *limited* forms of the personal markers limits the referents to these.
When the *extended* forms of the personal markers are used, their referents
may include certain others in addition to the basic ones, such that these
others are associated with the speaker(s), addressee(s), or either.
The extended forms are less marked than the limited forms.
1XL speaker
1X speaker U associate* (speaker)
2XL addressee+
2X addressee+ U associate* (addressee+)
2NL addressee+ U speaker
2N addressee+ U speaker U associate* (addressee+ U speaker)
Possibly also a "remainder" marker? This might have to be a separate word.
Number:
The _number_ of an argument may be:
Singular
Collective Plural
Distributive Plural
Indeterminate
The indeterminate forms are the least marked.
"Collective" means that the referent-set acts as a whole, while "distributive"
means that the predicate applies to each element of the referent-set. Spatial
distribution of the elements isn't essential.
Both head-marked number and dependent-marked number occur, depending on the
actant marking specifics:
1st or 2nd person head
3rd person definite:
Topic head
Afterthought either (or both!)
3rd person explicit:
Focus dependent
other dependent
Unspecified always indeterminate
Reflexive not marked
"Head" means here that any number marker occurs along with the actant marker,
while "dependent" means that any number marking occurs on the argument phrase.
When the argument phrase is marked for number, the whole phrase is marked at
once, rather than marking each individual component.
Note that coreferential markers are themselves dependent marking.
1st or 2nd person number marked with actant
3rd person definite:
Topic number marked with actant
Afterthought either (or both!)
3rd person explicit:
Focus number marked before argument phrase
other number marked before argument phrase
Unspecified always indeterminate, number not marked
Reflexive number marked only for A2, not here
Coreferential number marked with actant of 1st component ???
There's no distinct marker for singular, except the quantifier "1" used in
argument phrases. Number marking doesn't occur with 1st person limited forms,
which usually have singular referents.
Tag Marked Attributes # forms
--- ----------------- -------
1X LIMITED 1
1X number EXTENDED 3
2X number limited 6
2N number limited 6
3P number 3
3A number 3
3I number 3
3I3 number 3
