Re: Unilang: the Grammar

On Tue, 24 Apr 2001, Oskar Gudlaugsson wrote:

> I think that technically there is no such thing as "grammar", as distinct
> from morphology, syntax, etc; or so I understand modern linguistic
> terminology. Is grammar the total of those, excluding all phonology? In any
> case, I open a "grammar" thread to discuss in entirety various things that I
> don't feel to belong properly to either morphology or syntax.
<wry g>  I use "grammar" to describe books that describe these features
of a particular language!

[snip]
> * All clitic marking is entirely optional. If tense, person, number, etc, is
> irrelevant or obvious by context, it's simply not marked.
I like this a lot.  :-)

> * Two primary "verb forms": infinitive and finitive. The infinitive is
> simply the naked stem and is not strictly a verb; there is not necessarily a
> morphological distinction between a verbal infinitive and the noun referring
> to the action itself. The infinitive represents all participles; optional
> aspect marking, attached to the infinitive, will express our traditional
> past participle, though perhaps in many different ways (since English ppl is
> in fact a collection of conceivable aspects). It is likely that the ending
> for the finitive will be /er/. The finitive form can also be used as a noun,
> and is then an agent.
Would the imperative or something else be used for the imperative, if any?

Wish I knew enough to comment more fully, but it looks good to me.  I
wouldn't mind learning something with this kind of structure.  :-)

YHL