TOPICS IN EŊES GRAMMAR (23 December 2024) ====================== This document summarises some topics in Eŋes grammar which are unpublished or not yet fully covered in the scratchpad thread (https://www.verduria.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=709). Note that some points may be changed in the future: this document is accurate as of the time of writing, and focusses mostly on those aspects of grammar relevant to the 2024 ZBB Reconstruction Relay text. LEXEME CLASSES -------------- The following open classes of lexemes exist (see the scratchpad thread for further details on each): • NOUNS can appear as the arguments of verbs, as possessors, and in focus constructions. They can be preceded by the accusative marker and by possessors, and can be followed by adjectives, by quantifiers (not in this text) and by relative clauses. They can be divided into ALIENABLE and INALIENABLE groupings by the possessive markers they take. • VERBAL lexemes occur in the core of the verb complex. They can be divided into two groups: • Full VERBS can occur free. Every verb complex must contain at least one full verb. Verbs have a composite internal structure, containing at least a root and a lexical aspect. Verbal roots can be INTRANSITIVE, TRANSITIVE or DITRANSITIVE. (In glosses and below, a root will be marked with √, and an interpunct · may be used to separate the parts of a verb.) • VERBOIDS are a heterogeneous group of bound forms which occur together with full verbs, and behave like them to varying degrees. Many exhibit stem alternations with aspect: these are their A and B forms, written below as A~B. (The A form is unmarked, being used in verb complexes with no aspect marker.) • ADVERBS can occur free, at the beginning of a clause, or more commonly are incorporated into the verbal complex. • ADJECTIVES occur obligatorily bound, being preceded by a noun in their attributional use, or by an auxiliary in their predicational use (in which situation they behave as a full verb). There are several minor classes. Most notably there are FOCUS MARKERS, which occur after the first noun phrase of a clause. Other that these, there are FINAL PARTICLES and CONJUNCTIONS, neither of which appear in this text. Eŋes has no class of ADPOSITIONS. Instead it uses applicative constructions, verbs and relational nouns to convey the same ideas. There is also no coherent class of PRONOUNS. Instead each pronoun series has a different distribution: for details see https://verduria.org/viewtopic.php?p=82091#p82091 CLAUSAL AND VERBAL ORDERING --------------------------- A brief summary of the most common ordering possibilities within a divalent clause: • S O V: unmarked order • O S-V: when S is pronominal (see below) • S V-O: when O is pronominal (see below) • S V O: in relative clauses, and some other circumstances • S FOC O V / O FOC S V: when an argument is focussed Note that a ‘clause’ can be difficult to define since it may contain more than one verb to express peripheral arguments. (I’ve called this a ‘close coordination’ structure below and in https://www.verduria.org/viewtopic.php?p=85891#p85891.) A brief summary of the structure of the verbal complex, and its major divisions (where the VERBS form the head of the verbal complex and its only obligatory component): adverb-subject-connectivity-evidential-subject-NEG-TAM-VERBS-applicative-object-adverb |____________________________________________| |_______________________| PREVERB CORE Note that this maximal structure is a simplification: for instance some fields are mutually exclusive, and this does not show ordering variations in the preverb. For more details see the individual posts in the scratchpad thread, and below. COPULA AND LOCATION ------------------- Ignoring adjectives, Eŋes has three constructions corresponding to the English copula ‘to be’. First is a nominal sentence with the FOCUS MARKER. With one noun, this takes on an existential meaning. With two nouns, it acts as an equational copula. Either way, it has a basically PRESENTATIONAL or SPECIFICATIONAL meaning: the focussed noun is new to the speaker. Roughly similar to an English existential, ‘there is an X (which is Y)’. (With verbal sentences, a focussed NP can have a wider range of meanings. But it’s still basically presentational, introducing a new referent.) In other circumstances a copular clause may be PREDICATIONAL, specifying further information about an already-known referent. In this case a verb in √wgi- can be used, usually ‘wgiŋ’. This verb has equational uses like focus markers, but can also express class-membership or properties (when the property is a noun and not an adjective or verb). For LOCATIONAL predication a different verb is used, namely ‘foŋ’ or another verb in √f-. This verb may be glossed as ‘be at’, ‘be in’, ‘be on’, etc., depending on context. TAM VERBOIDS ------------ The most distinct set of verboids are the TAM VERBOIDS. These always occur before any other verb/oids in the verb core, and no more than one may be present in any verb complex. Uniquely, they trigger stem alternations in any following verboids. However their verbal origin is clearly apparent in their similarities to other verbal constructions, especially motion SVCs (see below). (Prior to writing this I analysed the MODAL VERBOIDS separately from the ASPECTUAL VERBOIDS. However it has become apparent both these categories have identical behaviour, so it is better to treat them together.) Verboids triggering stem form A: • ‘uniŋ-’ expresses a notion of CONTINUATION, as in English ‘continue to V’ or ‘remain V-ing’. • ‘sar-’ is identified as a PROGRESSIVE. In distribution it is very similar to the English ‘-ing’. It expresses an activity which is ongoing as of the reference time, or which is simultaneous with another activity. It can also occur where English would use a complement clause, e.g. with perception verbs. Stative and punctual verbs can never take the progressive. • ‘fas-’ is a HABITUAL: ‘usually’, ‘used to’, etc. • ‘rwelbu-’ expresses an ABILITY: ‘can’, ‘may’, ‘be able to’. • ‘gam-’ and ‘fasfin-’ express OBLIGATION or NECESSITY. The difference is related to the source of the obligation: for ‘fasfin-’ it must be externally imposed, whereas ‘gam-’ is preferred for internal or dynamic obligation. • ‘wran-’ has a wide range, encompassing meanings of ‘seem to V’, ‘as if to V’, ‘V-like’, ‘barely V-ed’. • ‘sises-’ translates straightforwardly as WANT. Verboids triggering stem form B: • ‘si(w)-’ is a PERFECTIVE. It occurs most often for past events, and typically for those which are punctual or of short duration. It is particularly common with events which are fully completed or which occur in sequence. It cannot be used with stative verbs. • ‘isay-’ is best glossed as JUST. It essentially marks events which are in the recent past relative to the reference time. It has extended use as a PERFECT category, for those events which are farther from the reference time. • ‘wel-’ is the opposite of ‘isay-’: it is a PROSPECTIVE, referring to those events which are in the future relative to the reference time (like English ‘going to’). • ‘ye-’ can be glossed as AGAIN, referring to an action which is repeated. Finally, the absence of an aspect marker can be used with a stative or generic clause, or with a durative action especially in the past. MOTIONAL SVCS ------------- Motional serial verb constructions have the general form: manner verb - path verboid - motion verboid (Where the path verboid is optional, but the motion verboid is almost always present.) The manner verb can be any verb expressing manner of motion. The path and motion verboids are drawn from the following closed sets: PATH | MOTION ---------------------|----------------------------- -fa~fay ‘up’ | -wal~wel ‘go’ -san ‘down’ | -isa~isay ‘come’ -fe~feŋ ‘out’ | -mum~um ‘around, undirected’ -gi~agi ‘in’ | -ndo ‘over’ | -kom ‘under/through’ | -ye ‘return/back’ | (Note how many of these switch A/B stem forms with aspect.) Some verbs inherently specify a direction of motion. These can be used without a motion verboid, using only a path verboid, that is: motion verb - path verboid Although they may occur with a redundant motion verboid too. Some verbs do not involve motion but nonetheless can be associated with a path, for instance ‘look’ or ‘call’. These can also take a path verboid, but never a motion verboid: directional verb - path verboid Some transitive verbs have no inherent motion but can result in motion of their object. These can take a motion verboid with a cause-effect or resultative relationship: cause verb - path verboid - motion verboid ADDING ARGUMENTS ---------------- The text uses only one applicative: the LOCATIVE ‘-fas~far’, which adds a location or a destination object (never a source). The motion verboids ‘-wal~wel’ and more rarely ‘-isa~isay’ may also take an object after the verb, representing a DESTINATION of motion, without the need for an explicit applicative (though applicatives are also found in this situation). More commonly, peripheral arguments are expressed by what I’ve called a CLOSE COORDINATION construction, in which additional verbs are used to introduce other nouns. (In this function they can appear somewhat similar to prepositions.) Note that in such constructions the preverbal ‘subject 2’ markers can more strictly indicate switch-reference: see https://www.verduria.org/viewtopic.php?p=85891#p85891 for further details.