MNCL2B Argument Morphology
2005-Sep-04, Sunday 08:48![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qiihoskehsame as before
The numbers are singular and plural. Plural can be collective or distributive and proximal, distal, or both. However, number is optional and indicated only for clarity.
The collective morpheme (-$$$-, tag Coll) should probably be considered a derivation rather than an inflection, since it can also take additional number affixes.
The distributive morpheme (-$$$-, tag Dist), if it appears, follows any plural morpheme, and in itself, implies plurality.
"Proximal" more-or-less refers to those present at the time of utterence, and "distal" to those not present. 1st and 2nd persons pronouns will always have at least one proximal referent. The relevent morphemes are:
The addition or insertion of <r> seems to be an irregular way of making purely distal forms. The morphemes -ek- and -al- come from MNCL.
Number isn't marked on adjectives and verbs.
The roots for these are grouped into
The referent of any 2nd person inclusive form is the union of the referents of the corresponding 2nd person exclusive withe the 1st person exclusive. The 2nd person inclusive also has a poetic form (tom-).
3rd person pronouns and determiners agree with their noun in gender, thus: zou doga "the dog", nou touba "the tree".
Assuming the use of the affixes described above, the specific forms of the pronouns are:
I'm not sure which form, mek-, mal-, or marr-, will be used when there more than one speaking together; possibly a collective form would be better!
Some words referring to locations and used as demonstratives are derived from pronominal roots, the location root (c-), and the present tense morpheme
(-iz).
There are also some determiners derived from pronominal roots.
The argument structure of a word-stem determines the following:
The valence of a word-stem is 2 if a "possessor" is allowed (and therefore required), and is 1 otherwise.
This involves:
Part of this is what all those different possessive cases are for.
Without changing any roles, an argument can be deleted by simply omitting it, if it's not the possessor. In all cases, an argument can be deleted by using the indefinite pronoun as the argument. Certain role-changing operations will also effect deletion of an argument.
The possessor's role is changed by changing its case. This deletes the C-Role argument, unless the subject's role is changed to C-Role.
The subject's role is changed by adding pre-final medial morphemes. This will delete the P-Role argument, unless the possessor's role is changed to P-Role (abs-possessive case). The morphemes are:
Those O-Role markers that can be used for the subject are inverted forms of certain morphemes frequently used with adverbial case.
I should also note that
MNCL2B A Constructed Language Actant.TXT J.S.Jones (qiihoskeh) Argument Morphology Date Started: 2005.Sep.02 Fri Current Date: 2005.Sep.04 Sun
This covers argument-related derivation and inflection.
NUMBER ET CETERA
The numbers are singular and plural. Plural can be collective or distributive and proximal, distal, or both. However, number is optional and indicated only for clarity.
The collective morpheme (-$$$-, tag Coll) should probably be considered a derivation rather than an inflection, since it can also take additional number affixes.
The distributive morpheme (-$$$-, tag Dist), if it appears, follows any plural morpheme, and in itself, implies plurality.
"Proximal" more-or-less refers to those present at the time of utterence, and "distal" to those not present. 1st and 2nd persons pronouns will always have at least one proximal referent. The relevent morphemes are:
Tag Morpheme Number Referents === ======== ======== =============== $$$ -epp- ? Singular Proximate (1) $$$ -erk- ? Singular Distal $$$ -ek- Singular indeterminate $$$ -alp- ? Plural Proximate only $$$ -arr- ? Plural Distal only $$$ -al- Plural both (2) $$$ -al- Plural indeterminate (1) except on 1st and 2nd person pronouns. (2) except on inanimate forms
The addition or insertion of <r> seems to be an irregular way of making purely distal forms. The morphemes -ek- and -al- come from MNCL.
Number isn't marked on adjectives and verbs.
PRONOUNS AND DETERMINERS
Pronoun and Determiner Roots
The roots for these are grouped into
- those which consist only of an initial block and are normally unstressed
these are:m- 1X 1st person (eXclusive when plural) t- 2X 2nd person (eXclusive when plural) ? p- 2N 1st or 2nd person inclusive ? z- 3A 3rd person animate ? n- 3I 3rd person inanimate - Exi indefinite (actually an Existential Quantifier) s- Rfx Reflexive y- Rel Relative (clause initiator) d- SCT Subordinate Clause Terminator - those which contain a medial block and are always stressed
$$$- Uni Universal Quantifier $$$- Dem Demonstrative (distal) ? bar- Par Parenthetical clause initiator $$$- Que Query (WH-Question)
The referent of any 2nd person inclusive form is the union of the referents of the corresponding 2nd person exclusive withe the 1st person exclusive. The 2nd person inclusive also has a poetic form (tom-).
Gender
3rd person pronouns and determiners agree with their noun in gender, thus: zou doga "the dog", nou touba "the tree".
Number Applied to Pronouns and Determiners
Assuming the use of the affixes described above, the specific forms of the pronouns are:
Per Singular Plural son Proximal Distal Either Proximal Distal Both Either === ======== ======== ======== ======== ======== ======== ======== 1X mek- ... ... ??? marr- mal- mal- 2X tek- ... ... talp- tarr- tal- tal- 2N pek- (1) ... ... palp- parr- pal- pal- 3A zepp- zerk- zek- zalp- zarr- zal- zal- 3I nepp- nerk- nek- nalp- narr- ... nal- (1) referent is actually dual
Note that -ek- is proximal only for 1st and 2nd persons! Also for 1st and 2nd persons, "distal" specifically means those associated with the proximal referents. This interpretation may be applied to animate 3rd person (and other animate) words as well.
I'm not sure which form, mek-, mal-, or marr-, will be used when there more than one speaking together; possibly a collective form would be better!
Derived Pronouns and Determiners
Some words referring to locations and used as demonstratives are derived from pronominal roots, the location root (c-), and the present tense morpheme
(-iz).
mizoc- 1X-Prs-CPos-Loc here, this/these tizoc- 2X-Prs-CPos-Loc there, that/those pizoc- 2N-Prs-CPos-Loc here, this/these zizoc- 3A-Prs-CPos-Loc there, that/those sizoc- Rfx-Prs-CPos-Loc in the same place (as now) y[iz]oc- Rel-Prs-CPos-Loc where, which (relative) izoc- Exi-Prs-CPos-Loc somewhere $$$oc- Uni-CPos-Loc everywhere $$$oc- Que-CPos-Loc where, which (query)
There are also some determiners derived from pronominal roots.
m$$$- 1X-Psy indefinite but specific t$$$- 2X-Psy definite but non-specific p$$$- 2N-Psy definite and specific ??
ARGUMENT STRUCTURE
The argument structure of a word-stem determines the following:
- what the word's valence (number of core arguments) is
- which role is assigned to each argument
Using the terminology is a bit tricky here; if any core argument is marked on the head, any other core arguments usually are too. However, the subject isn't so marked (except when coreferential such as on noun and infinitive forms) even when the possessor is marked. Also, there are non-core arguments that aren't oblique.
The valence of a word-stem is 2 if a "possessor" is allowed (and therefore required), and is 1 otherwise.
Changing the Argument Structure
This involves:
- deleting arguments
- changing the subject's role OR which argument is the subject
- changing the possessor's role OR which argument is the possessor
Part of this is what all those different possessive cases are for.
Without changing any roles, an argument can be deleted by simply omitting it, if it's not the possessor. In all cases, an argument can be deleted by using the indefinite pronoun as the argument. Certain role-changing operations will also effect deletion of an argument.
The possessor's role is changed by changing its case. This deletes the C-Role argument, unless the subject's role is changed to C-Role.
The subject's role is changed by adding pre-final medial morphemes. This will delete the P-Role argument, unless the possessor's role is changed to P-Role (abs-possessive case). The morphemes are:
Tag Morpheme Subject Role ============= ============ (default) P-Role CSub -$$$- C-Role ASub -$$$- A-Role
Those O-Role markers that can be used for the subject are inverted forms of certain morphemes frequently used with adverbial case.
I should also note that
- the same role can't be used for both possessor and subject; changing the possessor to P-Role requires changing the subject and changing the subject to C-Role requires changing the possessor.
- If the subject is neither P-Role nor C-Role, it normally can't appear, so the relevent morphemes occur mainly on noun, adjective, and infinitive forms.
