Gevey (Part 1): Verbs - long
| From: | Rik Roots <rikroots@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, November 19, 2000, 0:59 |
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I have just revised the Gevey verbs. The new setup is described below
(best viewed with a fixed-width font). Comments are always welcome...
Gevey Verbs
===========
Verbs are words that demonstrate the action(s) in a clause or
sentence. Every clause or sentence in Gevey will posess at least
one principle verb which will demonstrate the principle action in
the clause or sentence, It is also permissable for a clause or
sentence to include one or more secondary verbs which enhance or
refine the action of the principle verb.
Modes and voices
----------------
For principle verbs, Gevey has two modes and three associated
voices:
Descriptive mode: Descriptive voice
Interactive mode: Active voice
Incidental voice
The descriptive mode is used to describe the scene in which the
action is to take place. To do this, principle verbs will use the
descriptive voice.
Active and incidental voices
----------------------------
The interactive mode is used to describe the action which occurs
in a scene. To achieve this, principle verbs will use the active
and incidental voices.
In Gevey, the active voice is used to describe the actions taking
place in a scene, while the descriptive voice is used to describe
the scene itself. The incidental voice is used to describe a sort
of halfway house, detailing actions occuring in a scene which are
not central to the main action itself. The incidental voice is
also often used to describe actions not set in motion by the main
players in a scene, but to which they will need to react.
Note that there is no equivelent of the English passive voice in
Gevey.
The voice of the principle verb is demonstrated by using the
following verb constructions:
Active voice - simple active construction
Incidental voice - compound incidental construction
Descriptive voice - compound descriptive construction
A simple construction consists of the principle verb only, which
will be the action taking place in the scene.
A compound construction is made up of two verbs, an auxillary
verb which determines whether the clause is incidental or
descriptive, and a participle verb which describes the action (if
any) taking place in the scene.
Principle verb tenses
---------------------
Principle verbs use four tenses to demonstrate the time in which
their action occurs:
Future tense
Present tense
Past tense
Historic tense
Gevey has a basic philosophy that an action in the past will
directly affect actions in the present and future. The historic
tense is used for unalterable, unavoidable or unchangable actions
- in effect destiny, while the past tense is used for actions
whose repercussions, whilst unavoidable (depending upon the
clause's voice), can be altered by later actions.
Principle verb aspects
----------------------
Principle verbs also take a number of verb aspects, which qualify
the action of the verb:
Completion aspects
Condition aspects
Emphasis aspects
Verb aspects are small words (in fact adverbs) which are placed
directly in front of the principle verb. More than one verb
aspect can be used with each principle verb, in which case the
aspects are joined together into an aspect cluster which will go
in front of the principle verb.
It is quite common, and perfectly good grammar, for verb aspect
words to be placed between a compound verb's auxillary and
participle words, though placing them in front of the compound
verb, as happens with simple verbs, is just as acceptable. Verb
aspects tend to follow verbs only when the verb is at the start
of a clause or sentence (ie when the verb is the focus of the
clause)
Principle verb conjugation
--------------------------
Principle verbs undergo conjugation. The purpose of conjugation
is not to confuse the student of Gevey. Instead, by conjugating a
principle verb, valuable information can be passed on to the
listener or reader about the circumstances in which the action is
taking place. This will include information about:
the grammatical structures surrounding the principle verb (ie
how does the action relate to the various players in the scene)
the tense of the principle verb (ie, when in time is the
action taking place)
the status and number of the subject noun or pronoun of the
principle verb's clause
Conjugation
-----------
For the purpose of principle verb conjugation, the principle
verb can be divided into three parts:
verb stem - verb axil - verb suffix
There are three different conjugations in Gevey. Unlike in some
other languages, where each verb will be assigned to a particular
group which are then conjugated in a similar way (like the six
conjugations of Latin, the verb classes - ER, IR, RE - of French,
or strong vs weak verbs in English), in Gevey a verb will take a
different conjugation depending on the circumstances in which it
finds itself.
The three conjugations of Gevey are:
primary conjugation - the most common form of conjugation
secondary conjugation - mostly used in particular types of
relative clauses
tertiary conjugation - also known as the subjunctive
conjugation, this occurs most often when the verb finds itself in
a subjunctive clause, in particular when the subjunctive clause
is introduced by particular conjunctions
It is important to remember that all principle verbs - whether
they are active, incidental or descriptive - will undergo
conjugation.
The conjugation type and the tense of the principle verb is
demonstrated by the verb axil.
The status and number of the principle verb's subject noun or
pronoun is demonstrated by the verb suffix.
Axil conjugation of principle verbs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tense Conjugation type
----- -----------------------------------
Primary Secondary Tertiary
------- --------- --------
Future -an- -on- -in-
Present - -os- -is-
Past -at- -ot- -it-
Historic -ath- -oth- -ith-
Suffix conjugation, for all tenses and types of conjugation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Subject status Subject number
-------------- -----------------------------
Singular Paucal Plural
-------- ------ ------
Animate simple -e -ye -ee
Animate internal -a -ya -ae
Animate external -o -yo -oe
Inanimate -uu -yuu -ue
Secondary Verbs
---------------
Secondary verbs in a clause or sentence are divided into five
groups or designs:
Infinitive design
Secondary design
Predicate design
Anominate design
Participle design
The design type of a secondary verb is demonstrated by adding a
design suffix to the verb's stem. A verb may take any of the five
design suffixes depending on the verb's requirement. However, the
exact ending which a verb will take is dependent on the verbs
class.
Verb class
----------
All verbs in Gevey are divided into one of two classes:
Transitive verbs
Intransitive verbs
Transitive verbs in Gevey are verbs whose actions are normally
translated directly to its direct object. Intransitive verbs in
Gevey are verbs whose action on the direct object are normally
modulated by use of a preposition, which can either be attached
at the front of the verb, or will instead attach itself to the
direct object (the rule is that if the verb has no direct object,
or the verb is in primary focus, or the direct object is in
primary or clear focus, then the preposition is attached to the
verb; otherwise the preposition will attach to the direct
object). Occasionally, there will be two forms of the verb - one
transitive and one intransitive - where in English one verb will
do both jobs.
Secondary verb design Verb design suffix
--------------------- ------------------------------------
Transitive verbs Intransitive verbs
---------------- ------------------
Infinitive -an -en
Subsidiary -aeye -iye
Predicate -ak -eg
Anominate -alta -elde
Participle design suffixes also take account of the principle
verb's conjugation type:
Participle verb
conjugation type Participle design suffix
---------------- ------------------------------------
Transitive verbs Intransitive verbs
---------------- ------------------
Primary -anti -endou
Secondary -onti -ondou
Tertiary -inti -indou
Compound verbs
--------------
Compound verbs are constructed by combining an auxillary verb
(the equator verb ën to be, the descriptive auxillary verb ben to
have, and the passive auxillary verb sen to be) with the
appropriate secondary verb design. In particular, participle
design secondary verbs are used with ben and sen to form the
descriptive voice and passive voice compound verbs.
In compound verbs, the auxillary verb acts as the principal verb
of the clause and is conjugated accordingly, while the action of
the compound verb is carried by the secondary verb design. Note
that if a preposition is to be attached to a compound verb, then
it will attach to the auxillary, not the secondary, verb. Verbal
aspect adverbs, however, can be placed either in front of the
auxillary verb or after the secondary verb, or even inbetween the
two parts of the compound verb. The placement of verbal aspects
depends partly on the requirements of focus, and partly on custom
and dialect.
Using secondary verb designs
----------------------------
The infinitive verb design is used with certain verbs which
require a second verb to enhance or qualify the description of
their action. Examples of such verbs include tokan to like, vijan
to prefer, lougzan to enjoy, and neefan to love. In these cases,
the second verb will use the infinitive subsidiary design, and
will usually follow the main verb, or be placed in weak focus at
the end of the clause.
For example:
Te lugzhese ïst'yuu dhoun
I swim in the river
Te lugzhese ïst'yuu dhoun vijan
I prefer to swim in the river
Te lugzhese lougzan ïst'yuu dhoun
I enjoy swimming in the river
The predicative verb design is used with the auxillary verb ën
for commands:
De ë ta'yuu tuerh strimeg
Run to the door!
Placement of the predicative verb follows the same rules as
described above for infinitive verbs.
Participle design verbs are used with the auxillary verbs ben to
have and sen to be to form the passive and descriptive voices
respectively. Remember that there are three types of participle
design, one each for the three conjugation types (which ben and
sen cannot manage themselves as they only undergo primary
conjugation).
The subsidiary and anominate verb designs, like the predicative
verb design described above, are used with the auxillary verb ën,
and are used as the principal verb within a relative clause. If
the relative clause uses the subject entry universal pronoun zhek
then the clause's principal verb will take the anominate design.
Similarly, if the relative clause uses indirect object entry
universal pronoun zhes, then the clause's principal verb will
take the subsidiary design.
The subsidiary and anominate verb designs can alsu be used with
the auxillary verbs ben and sen in certain circumstances, for the
foollowing purposes:
ben + subsidiary design - [not yet determined]
sen + subsidiary design - [not yet determined]
ben + anominate design - closure of an argument
sen + anominate design - judgement
[example conjugations cut]
{{{Thanks for taking the time to read}}}
Rik
--
http://homepages.enterprise.net/rikroots/gevey/index.html
The Gevey Language Resource.