project Delta: new version
2006-Apr-05, Wednesday 18:01![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qiihoskehNOTE: some of this applies to other versions as well.
Last Edited: 2006.Apr.29 Sat
The "more animate" roles include agent, actor (maybe), donor, perceiver, and possessor. The "less animate" roles include patient, theme, recipient, object of perception, and possessum. An object of donation is "inanimate".
The open lexical classes are verb and noun. A lexical verb can function as a syntactical verb or adjective and a lexical noun can function as a syntactical noun or verb (more or less).
With one exception, a word has the same form regardless of how it functions syntactically. A syntactical verb acts as a head for all unmarked slots, while a syntactical noun or adjective always acts as a dependent for slot A1, which must be unmarked. Any other unmarked slot of a noun or adjective acts as a head. The exception mentioned is when a noun or adjective has a second dependent slot, in which case the COA marker is used.
The inverse form of the stem must be used where needed to avoid marked A1 with unmarked A2 (for syntactical nouns and adjectives, this makes sure that A1 is dependent and A2 isn't). It also must be used to keep 1st person actants in A2.
There must be a phrase assigned to each unmarked slot of a syntactical verb, and to each slot except A1 of a syntactical noun or adjective. For the slots that are present and unmarked, argument phrases are assigned to them in this order: A3, A2, and A1. A probable exception is the postponement of complement clauses.
If the predicate phrase is definite, the subject phrase must also be definite. Because of this, there are three kinds of two-phrase clauses:
There are probably multiple "plural" particles for noun phrases. They appear after any definite particle. The plural particles aren't used in indefinite predicate phrases and possibly not in indefinite subject phrases.
The coreference markers for time, location, and object of donation are not affixes but relative pronouns, which begin the relative clause. They're needed to indicate that an unmarked A3, Location, or Time acts as dependent, not head, and to indicate that an unmarked A1 acts as head, not dependent.
Query pronouns appear in front the semantic verb phrase, which becomes definite (unless it's partitive). This could also be analyzed as the pronoun being the syntactical verb with the verb phrase as its argument. The response to a query takes the same format.
For yes/no questions, the verb phrase is always indefinite.
Adverbial forms that share at least one argument with the verb are treated like adjectives syntactically. There are probably different adverbial markers for shared and non-shared.
Condition clauses are syntactically adverbial and are introduced by a conjunction ("if"). The condition clause and the conclusion clause must have the same mood. If the mood is actual, the conjunction might be translated as "because" or "when".
Satisfactive/Excessive clauses are also syntactically adverbial.
The indefinite past prefix is the short form of a verb meaning "remember". The indefinite future prefix is the short form of a verb meaning "anticipate". The continuity prefix is also a short form of a verb.
Absolute time markers, like location markers, are reduced forms of oblique arguments and are therefore suffixes.
There are also pronominal forms used for focus.
Alienable possession uses |(o)ri|.
Last Edited: 2006.Apr.29 Sat
Argument Structure
A word has one, two, or three actant slots, depending on its class. If it has two slots, one takes the "less animate" role when the stem has the direct form and the other the "more animate" role. The first will be called slot A1 and the second A2. If the word has three slots, there's also an "inanimate" role for the third slot, which will be called A3. When the stem has the inverse form, the roles for the first two slots are swapped.The "more animate" roles include agent, actor (maybe), donor, perceiver, and possessor. The "less animate" roles include patient, theme, recipient, object of perception, and possessum. An object of donation is "inanimate".
The open lexical classes are verb and noun. A lexical verb can function as a syntactical verb or adjective and a lexical noun can function as a syntactical noun or verb (more or less).
With one exception, a word has the same form regardless of how it functions syntactically. A syntactical verb acts as a head for all unmarked slots, while a syntactical noun or adjective always acts as a dependent for slot A1, which must be unmarked. Any other unmarked slot of a noun or adjective acts as a head. The exception mentioned is when a noun or adjective has a second dependent slot, in which case the COA marker is used.
The inverse form of the stem must be used where needed to avoid marked A1 with unmarked A2 (for syntactical nouns and adjectives, this makes sure that A1 is dependent and A2 isn't). It also must be used to keep 1st person actants in A2.
There must be a phrase assigned to each unmarked slot of a syntactical verb, and to each slot except A1 of a syntactical noun or adjective. For the slots that are present and unmarked, argument phrases are assigned to them in this order: A3, A2, and A1. A probable exception is the postponement of complement clauses.
Syntax
A Head word precedes its dependent phrases.If the predicate phrase is definite, the subject phrase must also be definite. Because of this, there are three kinds of two-phrase clauses:
| Identity: | Definite Predicate + Definite Subject |
|---|---|
| Definition: | Indefinite Predicate + Definite Subject |
| Existential: | Indefinite Predicate and Subject |
There are probably multiple "plural" particles for noun phrases. They appear after any definite particle. The plural particles aren't used in indefinite predicate phrases and possibly not in indefinite subject phrases.
The coreference markers for time, location, and object of donation are not affixes but relative pronouns, which begin the relative clause. They're needed to indicate that an unmarked A3, Location, or Time acts as dependent, not head, and to indicate that an unmarked A1 acts as head, not dependent.
Query pronouns appear in front the semantic verb phrase, which becomes definite (unless it's partitive). This could also be analyzed as the pronoun being the syntactical verb with the verb phrase as its argument. The response to a query takes the same format.
For yes/no questions, the verb phrase is always indefinite.
Adverbial forms that share at least one argument with the verb are treated like adjectives syntactically. There are probably different adverbial markers for shared and non-shared.
Condition clauses are syntactically adverbial and are introduced by a conjunction ("if"). The condition clause and the conclusion clause must have the same mood. If the mood is actual, the conjunction might be translated as "because" or "when".
Satisfactive/Excessive clauses are also syntactically adverbial.
Inflectional Morphology
Actants
In this version, A1 is a prefix slot, while A2 and A3 are suffix slots. However, an incorporated A1 argument is suffixed. The inverse stem is probably formed from the direct stem using a suffix. The reflexive and COA markers are also suffixes, both preempting A2.A1-V3Stem-A3-A2
A1-V2Stem-A2
A1-V1Stem
Tense, Mood, and Aspect
There are modal prefixes derived from or related to or the short forms of auxiliary verbs in addition to the actual (unmarked), hypothetical, and contrafactual moods.The indefinite past prefix is the short form of a verb meaning "remember". The indefinite future prefix is the short form of a verb meaning "anticipate". The continuity prefix is also a short form of a verb.
Absolute time markers, like location markers, are reduced forms of oblique arguments and are therefore suffixes.
Pronouns and Determiners
Most demonstratives are derived from the personal and indefinite pronominal stems by prefixing a locational morpheme. Possessives are derived in the same manner. Query and relative pronouns are derived by prefixing "gender" morphemes (animate, inanimate, location, time, etc.) to the query and relative morphemes.There are also pronominal forms used for focus.
Miscellaneous
The prefix |txu-| makes perceptions into actions, e.g. |kan| "see" into |txukan| "look at". At can be used with some other verbs as well. The |txu-| form may be required for imperatives.Alienable possession uses |(o)ri|.
