Re: Typologic survey, part I

> ---- PART I Conlang Typlogic Survey 2001 ----
>
> House-keeping data
>
> Name of the participating conlang:
amman iar

> Name/id of the creators:
David Bell

> Name/id of the submitter, if different from the creator:
David Bell

> Place used, if any:
amman, believed to be located somewhere to the southwest of Numenor. Spoken
by the nardhost who inhabit most of the lands west of the eroid elorenath, a
mountain range that divides the continent of amman into eastern and western
regions. amman iar has become the lingua franca of this western region both
politically and commercially.

> Web-address with more information, if any:
http://www.graywizard.net/Conlinguistics/amman_iar/amman_iar.htm

> Type of language as per Rick Harrison's system[2]:
> (see http://www.rick.harrison.net/langlab/l-types.html)
2.1.2 a priori but non-categorical vocabularies

> 1: Word order of Subject (S), Object (O) and Verb (V)
>
> The possible orders are: SVO/SOV/VSO/VOS/OSV/OVS/free/doesn't apply
> Which order(s) is/are most common?
When pragmatic considerations are ignored, the preferred word order for
amman iar is SOV.

> Which orders are possible?
When pragmatic considerations are considered, amman iar tends to prefer
Topic Focus Verb, thus allowing SOV or OSV.  Subordinate clauses use
inverted word order, i.e. VSO.

> Is the order different if the verb is intransitive, if so, how?
The preferred word order for intransitive constructions is S [Obl] V [Loc],
where S represents the single S-function argument of the intransitive
predicate, [Obl] represents an optional non-locative oblique argument of the
predicate, V represents the lexical verb, and [Loc] represents an optional
locative argument of the predicate.

The position of the auxiliary verb AUX is semantically determined by the
argument structure of the predicate.  In the absence of a patientive or
theme argument, the auxiliary verb takes sentence final position S V AUX.
Otherwise, the auxiliary verb immediately precedes the patient/theme
particle (PTP) which in turn precedes the patientive/theme argument, AUX PTP
S V.

For transitive constructions the preferred word order is A AUX PTP P [Obl] V
[Loc], where A represents the A-function argument of the transitive
predicate, AUX represents the auxiliary verb, PTP the Patient/Theme
Particle, P represents the P-function argument of the predicate, [Obl]
represents an optional non-locative oblique argument, V represents the
lexical verb and [Loc] represents an optional locative argument.

David
David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
    dbell@graywizard.net
    www.graywizard.net

"Wisdom begins in wonder." - Socrates