Sawilan Constructions

OK, many of you know that I'm not the world's most prolific conlanger.
 The only memorable project I've done is a bit of work on the
languages of Talislanta, a world created by roleplaying game designer
Stephen Michael Sechi.

I analyzed the etymology of all the words of the "Chanan" langauges
of Talislanta, and later I translated into Sawilan (a particularly
musical language, distinctive in its total lack of stop consonants) a
poem written by the daughter of a fellow Talislanta enthusiast.

Anyway, asked by Rob Nierse for more information on Sawilan, I
decided to do a little work on the grammar.  I did it by listing the
constructions that have been used so far, giving a very simplistic
description of each, and how the constructions are (presumably)
related to each other.

Boudewijn, this is a very simple version of "construction grammar,"
and I included the "based-on" relationships so you could be amused by
seeing object orientation used in a grammatical description of a
conlang. :)=20


SAWILAN CONSTRUCTIONS:

General Modification:
X M: quality, thing or action X is further described by modifier M.
Example: /sila samu/ =3D LIGHT MOON =3D moonlight.

Intense Modification:
M X M: Thing or action X is further described by modifier M, and the
quality described by M is intense or emphasized by the speaker.
Based on General Modification.
Example: /li un li/ =3D ONLY I ONLY =3D only I.

Inverse Modification:
M X: Thing or action X is further described by modifier M, and the
quality described by M is the most important, distinguishing
characteristic of thing X.
Based on General Modification.
Example: /wisri/ or /wi sri/ =3D TINY FOLK =3D "the wee folk" or
"whisps."

Intransitive Sentence:
V NP: action V has one participant designated: NP.
Based on General Modification.
Example: /la frawa wisri/ =3D FLY WING-WHISP =3D Whisp-wing flies.

Ellipsis:
X=85..  {X}: Entity X has been mentioned once, usually in the last
sentence, or is implied by the context; it appears again in the
meaning of the next sentence, but is omitted from the expression.  (I
don't know if this is what you'd properly call a "construction" but it
shows up so it was worth mentioning.)

SV Intransitive:
NP V: action V has one participant designated: NP.  The thing, NP, is
emphasized in the sentence.
Based on Inverse Modification.

Modified Intransitive:
V NP M: action V is further described by modifier M.
Based on Intransitive Sentence and General Modification.
Example: /la sin luh/ =3D FLY {whisp-wing} IN-SILENCE =3D =85flies in
silence.
Note: Here the subject, already known, is elliptical.

Simple Motion Sentence:
V NP PATH: thing NP undertakes movement V along path PATH (typically
a prepositional phrase).
Based on Modified Intransitive.
Example: /la fa samu ru/ =3D FLY {whisp-wing} TOWARD-MOON-RED
=20
Tightly Modified Intransitive:
V M NP: action V is crucially distinguished (typically, negated) by
modifier M (which is short, typically "hri", "not").
Based on General Modification and Intransitive Sentence (blended
differently than in a basic Modified Intransitive).
Example: /yuhra hri un/=3D UNDERSTAND NOT I

Transitive Sentence:
V NP1 NP2: action V has one more-agentlike/animate participant, N1,
and one less-agentlike/animate participant, N2.
Based on Modified Intransitive.

SV Transitive Sentence:
NP1 V NP2: as with Transitive above, but NP1 is emphasized.
Based on Transitive Sentence blended with SV Intransitive.
Example: /li un li yuhra fun/=3D ONLY-I UNDERSTAND IT =3D Only I
(emphasize) understand it.

Modified Transitive:
V NP1 NP2 M: Action V is as in Transitive, above, but is further
described by modifier(s) M.
Based on Transitive and General Modification.

Compound Intransitive:
V1 NP1 V2: Action V1 has NP1 as subject and also involves action v2.
Based on Intransitive and General Modification.

Compound Trasnitive:
V1 NP1 V2 NP2: Action V1 has NP1 as subject, and also involves action
V2, which has NP1 as subject and NP2 as object, as in a Transtive
Sentence.
Based on Compound Intransitive blended with Transitive.
Example: /hraya li un li yuhra fun/ =3D ABLE ONLY-I UNDERSTAND IT =3D
Only I can understand it.

Noun Modification:
N M: Thing N is further described by modifier M.
Based on General Modification.
Examples: see below.

Noun-Adjective:
N A: Thing N is further described by adjective A.
Based on Noun Modification.
Example: /samu ru/ =3D MOON RED =3D the red moon.

Noun-Genitive:
N1 N2: Thing N1 is the head of the phrase (meaning that the entire
phrase describes N1), and N2 is associated with N1 in some way,
typically by N1 possessing N2.
Based on Noun Modification.
Example: /nawa wisri/ =3D WING WHISP =3D Whisp's wing.  (The Whisp is a
small humanoid elemental with butterfly wings.)

Prepositional Phrase:
X P N: Entity X is further described as having a relation P
(typically one of position or motion) with landmark N.  X is the head
of the phrase (see above with Noun-Genitive).
Based on General Modification.
Example: /la fa samu ru/ =3D FLY TOWARDS MOON-RED =3D flies towards the
red moon.

Ria-clause:
N ria CLAUSE(fun): Thing N is further described as identical with the
pronoun "fun" (or occasionally other personal pronouns, as
appropriate) which appears in the clause CLAUSE.
Example: /hrasa ria hraya li un li yuhra fun/ =3D LANGUAGE ria ABLE
ONLY-I UNDERSTAND IT=3D a language which only I can understand.=20

THE POEM:

Sila  Samu I  --- light moon silk --- "Silken moonlight."


La nawa wisri,         fly wing whisp         (The whisp-wing flies)
La sin luh, sin luh,   fly in silence in silence
                                      (flies in silence, in silence)
La fa samu ru.         flies towards moon red
                                             (towards the red moon.)
Yi frawa sin luh       move lips in silence=20
                                          (her lips move in silence)
Ran fun sin hrasa,     talk she in language
                                           (she talks in a language)
Ria hraya li           which can only
un li yuhra fun.       I only understand it
                                      (which only I can understand.)
Yuhra hri un sa,       understand not I sometimes
                                      (sometimes I don't understand)
li wisri li sa.        only whisp only sometimes
                             (sometimes only the whisps understand.)
San un yiyah sin       am I always in
sila samu i.           light moon silk.
                                  (I am always in silken moonlight.)


Ed Heil
edheil@postmark.net
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Worship the potato? The idea seemed silly to me. But then
I thought, what else is more deserving of worship? It's simple,
it comes from the earth, and it can kill you if you disobey it.
   -- Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey (Saturday Night Live - NBC)