Re: Tensed Pronouns (was: Tagalog ...)
| From: | Tim Smith <timsmith@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Sunday, March 7, 1999, 4:01 |
|---|
At 05:26 PM 3/3/99 GMT+0, And Rosta wrote:
>Tim Smith:
>> In fact, one of my back-burner conlang projects is a future language that=
I
>> call neo-Anglic, which does precisely this -- except that I've made some
>> fairly radical simplifications (like abolishing gender) which I justify=
by
>> saying that it's descended from an English-based creole rather than=
directly
>> from English.
>
>Do you have any info on neo-Anglic? Details of the lg itself and
>about who speaks it where when? As I mentioned yesterday, my
>equivalent, /brI-S/, has of late thrust itself onto the front-burner,
>and I'm particularly keen to see an American counterpart so as to
>assess possible inihibitory and exacerbatory effects it might have on
>the evolution of British (=3D English+Welsh) English.
>--And.
As a matter of fact, I do have a brief sketch of Neo-Anglic, to which I've
just made some hasty revisions (hence my slowness in responding). As you
can see, it's very unfinished: there are many important areas that it
doesn't mention, such as questions, focus marking, relative clauses (or any
kind of subordinate clauses, for that matter). But it should give you a
rough idea of what I had in mind.
I really have no idea where this language is spoken, or by whom, or how far
in the future. I don't really know enough about language change to give a
good estimate of the minimum time it would take for it to evolve from a
"generic" English-based creole, or even how plausible it is. (The
demonstrative system, in particular, is strictly whimsical, and probably
can't be justified on any rational linguistic grounds.)
I have some ideas about further changes that I might make in it, which I'll
say something about in a follow-up post.
Anyway, here it is. Warning: it's pretty long as posts to this list go --
about 20 kilobytes. Also, it contains some characters that aren't standard
ASCII, so for those of you whose e-mail software has trouble with the ISO
Latin-1 character set:
=E1 =3D a with acute accent
=E9 =3D e with acute accent
=E8 =3D e with grave accent
=ED =3D i with acute accent
=F3 =3D o with acute accent
=F2 =3D o with grave accent
=FA =3D u with acute accent
NEO-ANGLIC, VERSION 2
Overview
Neo-Anglic is a future language descended from a mesolectal
variety of an English-based creole. From the isolating grammar
and fixed word order of the creole protolanguage, it has evolved
into an agglutinative language (at least with respect to verbal
morphology) with relatively free word order, as subject and
object pronouns and auxiliary verbs became first cliticized and
later fully bound to the verb stem as agreement markers and as
tense and aspect markers, respectively.
Phonology and Orthography
All the letters of the Roman alphabet are used except C, and all
have their lower-case IPA values except for the following:
Consonants:
{y} =3D [j]
{j} =3D [Z]
{x} =3D [S]
{h} =3D [x] or [h] depending on dialect
{q} =3D [N]
Vowels:
{e} =3D [e] in open unstressed syllables and in stressed
syllables when marked with an acute accent,
[E] in closed unstressed syllables and in stressed
syllables when marked with a grave accent
{o} =3D [o] in open unstressed syllables and in stressed
syllables when marked with an acute accent
[O] in closed unstressed syllables and in stressed
syllables when marked with a grave accent
[This vowel system, with seven phonemic vowels in stressed
syllables but only five in unstressed syllables, is essentially
the same as that of Italian.]
Diphthongs:
{ai} =3D [aI]
{au} =3D [AU]
{oi} =3D [OI]
Stress is phonemic, and is marked by an acute or grave accent on
the nuclear vowel of the stressed syllable. An acute accent is
used with {a}, {i} or {u}, and either an acute or a grave accent
with {e} or {o} (see above). These diacritics are also used with
stressed monosyllables, to distinguish them from function words
which are always unstressed, such as prepositions. Conversely,
there are bisyllabic function words that have no stressed
syllables, such as prepositions with unemphatic pronominal
objects (see below under "Prepositions").
Nouns
Nouns are not morphologically marked for case, number or
definiteness. Case roles are indicated by prepositions and by
subject and object agreement marking on the verb. Number and
definiteness are generally recoverable from context, because a
referential-indefinite noun phrase must be preceded by a
quantifier (either a cardinal number or one of a small group of
adjectives with meanings like "some", "several", "many", "a few",
etc.); any unquantified NP must be either definite (in which case
its referent, and hence its number, is already known to the
listener) or non-referential (generic, in which case its number
is irrelevant to the discourse). (In context, non-referential
NPs are unlikely to be confused with definite ones, as evidenced
by the use of the definite article with both in English, e.g.,
"the blue whale" meaning either a specific blue whale or blue
whales in general.) Moreover, if the NP is either a subject or a
definite direct object, its number will be marked by a pronominal
affix on the verb.
Thus, _m=E1n_ can mean either "the man", "the men", or "men" (in
general), depending on the context, while _wan m=E1n_ means "a
(specifc) man" and _pl=E8ni m=E1n_ means "some men".
There is an optional proclitic plural marker _al_, which can be
used with a definite NP if its number is felt to be ambiguous in
context. This is a phrasal clitic, preceding the NP as a unit
rather than the noun itself, e.g., _al m=E1n_ ("the men") or _al =F3l
m=E1n_ ("the old men"), but not _*=F3l al m=E1n_.
Adjectives
Adjectives can either precede or follow their head nouns,
depending on discourse-pragmatic factors. The default order is
adjective-noun, but this may be reversed to emphasize the
adjective; the noun-adjective order is mandatory when the
adjective is under contrastive stress. Thus, _=F3l m=E1n_ =3D "the old
man" (neutral), but _m=E1n =F3l_ =3D "the OLD man" (as opposed to the
young man that we were also talking about).
Adjectives, like nouns, are uninflected. Comparison is by means
of the preposed particles _m=F2_ (more), _m=F3s_ (most), _l=E8s_
(less), _l=EDs_ (least).
Adjectives as such are used only attributively, never
predicatively. The equivalent of predicate adjectives are
stative verbs formed by adding verbal affixes to adjective stems,
e.g., _man id=E8d_ =3D "the man is dead".
Personal Pronouns
Independent Prefix Suffix
1st sg. m=ED a(y)- -(a)mi
1st pl.
incl. =E1inai ana(y)- -(a)na
excl. =E1s wi(y)- -(a)s
2nd sg. y=FA yu(w)- -(y)u
2nd pl. y=F2l yal- -(y)al
3rd sg. --- i(y)- -(i)m
3rd pl. --- de(y)- -(d)em
The independent pronouns can occur in any position in which a
noun can occur, but are normally used only for emphasis. The
pronominal prefixes mark subject agreement on verbs. The
pronominal suffixes mark object agreement on verbs, but only with
definite direct objects; they are also used as unemphatic
pronominal objects of prepositions.
There are no independent personal pronouns for the third person;
demonstratives are used instead (see below).
Demonstratives
Demonstrative adjectives
Singular Plural
this/these (near the speaker) d=EDs ald=EDs
that/those (near the addressee) d=E8t ald=E8t
that/those (far from both) di=E1da aldi=E1da
Demonstrative pronouns
------ Animate ------ ----- Inanimate -----
Singular Plural Singular Plural
d=EDsgai ald=EDsgai d=EDswan ald=EDswan
d=E8tgai ald=E8tgai d=E8twan ald=E8twan
di=E1dagai aldi=E1dagai di=E1dawan aldi=E1dawan
Demonstrative adjectives, like other adjectives, normally precede
their head nouns, but follow them when used with contrastive
emphasis. Thus: _d=EDs m=E1n_ (this man), _ald=EDs m=E1n_ ("these men"),
but _m=E1n d=EDs_ ("THIS man"), _m=E1n ald=EDs_ ("THESE men"). When a
demonstrative and another adjective qualify the same noun and
neither is contrastive, the demonstrative comes first: _d=EDs =F3l
m=E1n_ ("this old man").
Note that the plural prefix _al-_, although formally identical to
the optional noun-phrase plural clitic _al_, is NOT optional with
demonstratives. Moreover, the use of a plural demonstrative in
an NP precludes the use of _al_ as a phrasal clitic. (Thus *_al
ald=EDs m=E1n_ and *_al m=E1n ald=EDs_ are ungrammatical.)
Prepositions
True to its creole origins, Neo-Anglic has only a very few
prepositions. The most frequently used are:
lo(q) to, at (general-purpose dative, allative and locative
marker; also marks accusative for specific, animate
direct objects [like Spanish _a_ or Hebrew _et_]).
bla(q) of (genitive marker).
auta(v) from, away from (ablative marker).
bai with, by, by way of, through (instrumental, comitative
and perlative marker)
(A final consonant, shown above in parenthesis, occurs only when
the following word begins with a vowel.)
When the object of a preposition is a personal pronoun rather
than a noun, the pronominal suffix may be used, e.g., _b=FAk blami_
("my book"), _h=E1us blaqana_ ("our [exclusive] house"), _m=E1n
idaqg=EDvim b=FAk loyal_ ("the man gave you [plural] the book").=20
Note that these "conjugated prepositions" have no stressed
syllables. They are not used if the pronominal object of the
preposition is a focus, a contrastive topic, or otherwise
emphasized; in these situations the independent pronouns are
used, e.g., _b=FAk bla m=ED_ ("MY book"). [Since there are no
independent third-person personal pronouns, demonstrative
pronouns are used instead, e.g., _b=FAk bla aldi=E1dagai_ ("THEIR
book").]
To express finer locational or directional distinctions than are
allowed by the small number of available prepositions, a class of
"local nouns" are used. A local noun is positioned between a
preposition and its nominal object to clarify the meaning of the
preposition, so that formally the local noun is the object of the
preposition and the lexical noun stands in a genitive relation to
the local noun. For example, _lo h=E1us_ =3D "at the house" or "to
the house", but _loq =EDnsaid h=E1us_ =3D "in the house" or "into the
house". [In formal and written registers, the latter would be
_loq =EDnsaid bla h=E1us_, making the genitive relation between the
local noun and the lexical noun explicit (literally "at/to the
inside of the house").]
The potential ambiguity between static and dynamic readings of
prepositions such as _lo_ (that is, "at" vs. "to" and "in" vs.
"into" in the examples above) is resolved in most contexts by the
semantics of the verb. In general, telic verbs of motion require
a dynamic interpretation, while atelic verbs of motion and all
other verbs require a static one. (See below under "Verbs" for
an explanation of the telic vs. atelic distinction.)
Verbs
The affirmative active verb has the following morpheme slots:
SUBJECT-[TENSE/MODALITY]-[ASPECT1]-STEM-[ASPECT2]-[OBJECT].
Subject and object agreement:
The subject and object agreement markers are the pronominal
prefixes and suffixes, respectively (see above). All verbs
except imperatives are marked for subject agreement, but only
definite direct objects trigger object agreement.
The following is a sample paradigm of an affirmative verb in the
present tense (lexical stem _s=ED_ "see"):
Subject Direct Object
1st sg. 1st sg. ----
2nd sg. as=EDu
3rd sg. as=EDm
1st pl. excl. ----
1st pl. incl. ----
2nd pl. as=EDal
3rd pl. as=EDdem
none or indef. as=ED
2nd sg. 1st sg. yus=EDmi
2nd sg. -----
3rd sg. yus=EDm
1st pl. excl. yus=EDna
1st pl. incl. yus=EDas
2nd pl. -----
3rd pl. yus=EDdem
none or indef. yus=ED
3rd sg. 1st sg. is=EDmi
2nd sg. is=EDu
3rd sg. is=EDm
1st pl. excl. is=EDna
1st pl. incl. is=EDas
2nd pl. is=EDal
3rd pl. is=EDdem
none or indef. is=ED
1st pl. excl. 1st sg. ------
2nd sg. anas=EDu
3rd sg. anas=EDm
1st pl. excl. ------
1st pl. incl. ------
2nd pl. anas=EDal
3rd pl. anas=EDdem
none or indef. anas=ED
1st pl. incl. 1st sg. -----
2nd sg. wis=EDu
3rd sg. wis=EDm
1st pl. excl. -----
1st pl. incl. -----
2nd pl. wis=EDal
3rd pl. wis=EDdem
none or indef. wis=ED
2nd pl. 1st sg. yals=EDmi
2nd sg. ------
3rd sg. yals=EDm
1st pl. excl. yals=EDna
1st pl. incl. yals=EDas
2nd pl. ------
3rd pl. yals=EDdem
none or indef. yals=ED
3rd pl. 1st sg. des=EDmi
2nd sg. des=EDu
3rd sg. des=EDm
1st pl. excl. des=EDna
1st pl. incl. des=EDas
2nd pl. des=EDal
3rd pl. des=EDdem
none or indef. des=ED
Tense and aspect marking:
There are two aspect markers: an imperfective suffix _-(i)n_,
which goes immediately after the lexical stem and before the
object suffix (if any), and a completive or perfect prefix=20
_-dan-_, which goes after any tense and/or modality prefixes and
before any passive or inchoative prefix. The imperfective suffix
is used only with non-stative verbs, since stative verbs are
inherently imperfective. The perfect prefix has taken on the
function of marking perfective past (preterite or aorist) as well
as perfect (like, for example, the French "perfect" tense formed
with _avoir_ plus the perfect participle).
There are also two tense markers, both prefixes which immediately
follow the subject prefix and precede any aspect prefixes: a past
or anterior marker _-bin-_ and a future marker _-gon-_. The
tense markers can combine with each other and with the aspect
markers to form a wide variety of tense-aspect combinations.
Rather than attempting to formulate clearly and concisely the
rules governing the co-occurrence of the various tense and aspect
markers, I will simply list the possible combinations of these
morphemes with two verbs, one stative and one non-stative. In
order to illustrate how the tense and aspect markers interact
with subject and object agreement markers, both verbs in these
examples have a first-person singular subject and a third-person
singular direct object.
Stative (_s=E1vi_, "know"):
as=E1vim -- "I know it" (present)
abins=E1vim -- "I knew it" (past)
agons=E1vim -- "I will know it" (future)
abingons=E1vim -- "I was going to know it" (post-past)
abindans=E1vim -- "I had known it" (pluperfect)
agondans=E1vim -- "I will have known it" (future perfect)
abingondans=E1vim -- "I was going to have known it" (post-past
perfect)
Non-stative (_t=E9k_, "take"):
Perfective:
at=E9kim -- "I take it" (present)
adant=E9kim -- "I took it" (preterite) or "I have taken
it" (perfect)
agont=E9kim -- "I will take it" (future)
abingont=E9kim -- "I was going to take it" (post-past)
abindant=E9kim -- "I had taken it" (pluperfect)
agondant=E9kim -- "I will have taken it" (future perfect)
abingondant=E9kim -- "I was going to have taken it"
(post-past perfect)
Imperfective:
at=E9kinim -- "I am taking it" (present)
abint=E9kinim -- "I was taking it" (past)
agont=E9kinim -- "I will be taking it" (future)
abingont=E9kinim -- "I was going to be taking it" (post-
past)
abindant=E9kinim -- "I had been taking it" (pluperfect)
agondant=E9kinim -- "I will have been taking it" (future
perfect)
abingondant=E9kinim -- "I was going to have been taking
it" (post-past perfect)
Note: A nasal consonant at the end of a prefix assimilates to
the point of articulation of the following consonant (if any), so
that, for example, _abingont=E9kim_ is pronounced as if it were
spelled _abiqgont=E9kim_.
Passives and inchoatives:
A transitive verb can be passivized by inserting the prefix=20
_-get-_ immediately before the lexical stem, after any tense,
modality, or aspect prefixes, e.g., _m=E1n idangets=E8n lo s=EDdi_
("the man was sent to the city"). In general, the passive is
used only when the agent of a transitive verb is unknown or
unspecified. Topicalizing the patient or focusing the agent (the
other main uses of the passive in English) are usually
accomplished simply by changing the word order, e.g., _lo m=E1n
idans=EDm l=E9di_ ("the man was seen by the woman"). (_m=E1n idangets=ED
bai l=E9di_ is grammatically correct but would be perceived by
native speakers as sounding awkward.)
The same prefix, used in the same way with a stative intransitive
verb, forms an inchoative verb (a non-stative verb meaning to
take on the state denoted by the original verb), e.g., _m=E1n
idangetd=E8d_ ("the man died", i.e., became dead).
Negation:
The verb is negated by inserting the prefix _-no-_ immediately
after the subject prefix (before any tense, modality or aspect
prefixes) and placing the negative particle _nan_ after the verb
(rather like the French _ne...pas_), e.g.:
affirmative yus=EDm "you see it"
negative yunos=EDm nan "you don't see it"
Phrasal verbs:
There is a class of verbs whose stems consist of two lexical
roots, both of which can, in most cases, also stand as
independent words. The first element is a verb and the second is
an adverb or adjective which qualifies in some way the meaning of
the first. Examples are _ran=F3va_ ("run over"), _mekd=E8d_
("kill"). In verbs of this type, suffixes (if any) are inserted
between the two lexical elements, rather than attached to the
end. Thus:
_tr=E1k idanranim=F3va lo m=E1n_ ("the truck ran over the man")
not _*tr=E1k idanran=F3vam lo man_
Telic and atelic verbs:
The telic vs. atelic distinction is related but not identical to
the stative vs. dynamic distinction. A stative verb, as the name
implies, denotes a state, while a dynamic verb denotes a process.=20
Telic verbs are a subset of dynamic verbs (and thus atelic verbs
are a superset of stative verbs): a telic verb denotes a process
which is in some sense goal-directed, that is, one which can in
principle be completed, whether or not it actually is completed
in a given situation. In other words, a telic verb denotes a
process which is intrinsically bounded, whereas an atelic verb
denotes either a state or a process which is potentially open-
ended. =20
Most verbs of motion are telic in their basic form, but can be
made atelic by the addition of the suffix _-raun_. With verbs of
motion, telicity is what determines whether a preposition
denoting a spatial relationship is interpreted statically (as a
locative marker) or dynamically (as an allative marker). For
example, _idanw=F2k loq =EDnsaid h=E1us_ means "he walked into the
house", but _idanw=F2kraun loq =EDnsaid h=E1us_ means "he walked
(around) in the house".
Word Order
The most common word order in transitive sentences is SVO, with
the direct object immediately following the verb and oblique
objects expressed by prepositional phrases following the direct
object, e.g., _m=E1n idang=EDvim b=FAk lo l=E9di_ ("the man gave the book
to the woman"). However, there is considerable freedom to vary
this order based on pragmatic factors, since the subject and
object agreement marking on the verb and the use of the
preposition _lo_ as an accusative marker (when the direct object
is animate and specific) are usually sufficient to disambiguate
syntactic roles.
There is a strong tendency toward verb-second order, especially
in main clauses, but this tendency is mitigated by a strict rule
that a referential-indefinite NP cannot precede the verb. Thus
intransitive sentences with indefinite subjects are mandatorily
VS, e.g., _idank=E1m wan m=E1n lo haus_ ("a man came to the house").=20
This rule also leads to many OSV sentences, e.g., _lo m=E1n
idanranim=F3va wan tr=E1k_ ("the man was run over by a truck"). The
general rule is that the topic precedes the verb and everything
else follows it. This means that sentences without topics (such
as existential sentences) are verb-initial.
Existential sentences are formed with the impersonal verb _gat_,
with invariant third-person singular subject marking, e.g., _igat
t=FA m=E1n loq =EDnsaid h=E1us_ ("there are two men in the house").
Fossilized Expressions
Greeting: =E1i informal
aw=E1ya formal
Leave-taking: s=EDa informal
bis=EDnya somewhat formal
abis=EDnya very formal
-------------------------------------------------
Tim Smith
timsmith@global2000.net
The human mind is inherently fallible. It sees patterns where there is only
random clustering, overestimates and underestimates odds depending on
emotional need, ignores obvious facts that contradict already established
conclusions. Hopes and fears become detailed memories. And absolutely
correct conclusions are drawn from completely inadequate evidence.
- Alexander Jablokov, _Deepdrive_ (Avon Books, 1998, p. 269)