An IAL

[Rounin Ryuuji]

I think this is developing nicely, but I haven't much to add beyond a vague sense of encouragement.

[Travis B.]

As inspired by other thread, I have decided that mental state verbs will take their experiencer as their subject and their stimulus as their object. Note that they are ambitransitive, where a stimulus can be simply omitted to indicate a mental state for an experiencer without any stimulus. Examples include:

"like"	myoka
"be.angered"	eraka
"be.annoyed"	satyora
"admire"	kanto
"be.offended"	kisutuka
"fear"	osore
"be.entertained"	amyusa

[kodé]

As inspired by other thread, I have decided that mental state verbs will take their experiencer as their subject and their stimulus as their object. Note that they are ambitransitive, where a stimulus can be simply omitted to indicate a mental state for an experiencer without any stimulus.

Cool, I like it!

How would you say the opposite, i.e., a stimulus without an experiencer? Like “he is annoying,” or “she is offensive,” or “I am scary?” Is there a special mental state passive verb you could use in an SVC? Or could you simply drop the subject and topicalize the object?

[Travis B.]

As inspired by other thread, I have decided that mental state verbs will take their experiencer as their subject and their stimulus as their object. Note that they are ambitransitive, where a stimulus can be simply omitted to indicate a mental state for an experiencer without any stimulus.

Cool, I like it!

How would you say the opposite, i.e., a stimulus without an experiencer? Like “he is annoying,” or “she is offensive,” or “I am scary?” Is there a special mental state passive verb you could use in an SVC? Or could you simply drop the subject and topicalize the object?

You would passivize it with risa; e.g. "he is annoying" is si risa satyora. One cannot simply drop the subject and topicalize the object, as topicalization is carried out by fronting the topic, and if the subject were dropped then it would be in the same position that the subject would have been in.

[Qwynegold]

Note that they are ambitransitive, where a stimulus can be simply omitted to indicate a mental state for an experiencer without any stimulus. Examples include:

"like"	myoka
"be.angered"	eraka
"be.annoyed"	satyora
"admire"	kanto
"be.offended"	kisutuka
"fear"	osore
"be.entertained"	amyusira

Aha. Some of these do make a lot of sense as intransitives. But how would intransitive myoka be used?

[Travis B.]

Note that they are ambitransitive, where a stimulus can be simply omitted to indicate a mental state for an experiencer without any stimulus. Examples include:

"like"	myoka
"be.angered"	eraka
"be.annoyed"	satyora
"admire"	kanto
"be.offended"	kisutuka
"fear"	osore
"be.entertained"	amyusira

Aha. Some of these do make a lot of sense as intransitives. But how would intransitive myoka be used?

"Be pleased".

[Travis B.]

Time Adverbs

One major area in which adverbs are used heavily is indicating time. When these are used, the non-past tense is used, even when the time is in the past. As with all adverbs, they are placed after the verb they qualify. Examples include:

"tomorrow"	mora
"yesterday"	kesa
"in the morning"	asa
"at noon"	mita
"in the afternoon"	koko
"in the evening"	awen
"at night"	nata

Other Adverbs

Other adverbs include:

"again"	nokama
"still"	imano
"more"	mera
"already"	rayta
"yet"	noka

[masako]

More please.

Keep going.

[Travis B.]

I have run into the point I often do where I am not sure what new syntax and morphology I can create, and am stuck creating vocabulary and examples. This is particularly true in this case as this language has rather minimal syntax and especially morphology.

That said, I have thought of an area that I have neglected so far, which is subordination. This is done with a particle/verb (oftentimes there is very little difference between the two aside from that particles cannot be qualified) followed by the complementizer su followed by the subordinate clause.

Examples include:

cause	kawsa
purpose	paro
consequence	tapa
despite	tarota
comparison	swa
before time	ante
after time	posa
at time	kwan

Note that these can be used with normal NP's rather than just complement clauses.

Take, for instance:

Kanwasa paraw, kawsa si ya risa satera yara parapa.
canvas PST.PFV be.blue CAUSE 3S PST.PFV PASS.DYN put ALL paint
"The canvas is blue because it was painted."

Kani ya tipan eta, ante si ya risa payna kewa.
dog PST.PFV eat food BEFORE 3S PST.PFV PASS.DYN bone DAT
"The dog ate the food before it was given the bone."

[Travis B.]

More Number Stuff

Fractions are indicated by placing the particle ye after the divisor; when multiplying this, the multiplier goes after ye. This functions as a normal noun. When specifying fractions of something, ku is placed after ye and any multiplier, after which goes what the fraction is of. In this way, ku can be used as a partitive in addition to a genitive.

Adverbial multipliers (i.e. like iteratives) are formed by placing me after the multiplier, which is placed after the verb being qualified. Note that when used with adverbial multipliers, the iterative is normally not used, as the adverbial multiplier indicates a specific number of discrete events.

Kani ya tipan tway ye ku eta.
dog PST.PFV eat two FRACT GEN food
"The dog ate half the food."

Taynasora ya tipan tway me kani.
dinosaur PST.PFV eat two MULT dog
"The dinosaur ate the dog twice." (Don't ask me how this makes any sense.)

[Travis B.]

Dynamic versus Status Passives

The risa passive described previously is a dynamic passive, like the English get passive. There is another passive, a static passive, which is expressed with the auxiliary sera. Take the following examples:

Eta risa powi tipan.
food PASS.DYN cow eat
"The food is being eaten by the cow." (i.e. the food is actually being eaten by the cow)

Eta sera powi tipan.
food PASS.STAT cow eat
"The food is eaten by the cow." (i.e. the food is something which the cow eats)

Reflexives and Reciprocals

Reflexives are marked by using sika as an object of reflexive verbs. Take the following example:

Eta ay tipan sika.
food NEG eat REFL
"The food doesn't eat itself."

Reciprocals are marked by using anta as an object of reciprocal verbs. Take the following example:

Kani taynasora yaka anta.
dog dinosaur chase RECIP
"The dog and the dinosaur are chasing each other."

[Travis B.]

Coordinate Conjunctions

"And" is expressed simply by juxtaposing two different NP, without any conjunction being used. Exclusive "or" is expressed by weta placed between each NP in question. Inclusive "or" is expressed by ota placed between each NP in question. Take, for instance:

Taynasora ya tipan kani powi.
dinosaur PST.PFV eat dog cow
"The dinosaur ate the dog and the cow."

Taynasora ya tipan kani weta powi.
dinosaur PST.PFV eat dog EXCL.OR cow
"The dinosaur ate either the dog or the cow."

Taynasora ya tipan kani ota powi.
dinosaur PST.PFV eat dog INCL.OR cow
"The dinosaur ate the dog and/or the cow."

Taynasora ya tipan kani powi kan.
dinosaur PST.PFV eat dog cow chicken
"The dinosaur ate the dog, the cow, and the chicken."

Taynasora ya tipan kani weta powi weta kan.
dinosaur PST.PFV eat dog EXCL.OR cow EXCL.OR chicken
"The dinosaur ate either the dog, the cow, or the chicken."

Taynasora ya tipan kani ota powi ota kan.
dinosaur PST.PFV eat dog INCL.OR cow INCL.OR chicken
"The dinosaur ate the dog and/or the cow and/or the chicken."

Note that when conjunctions are not used when "anding" multiple verb phrases. Rather, the verb phrases are separated out into separate clauses, and the subject and topic are marked in the first clause, while in subsequent clauses they are indicated with a placeholder 3S or 3P pronoun si or sya. Take for instance:

Taynasora ya tipan kani, si ya nema raka para powi.
dinosaur PST.PFV eat dog 3S PST.PFV take milk ABL cow
"The dinosaur ate the dog and milked the cow."

[Travis B.]

Stative versus Dynamic Verbs

There are number of verbs such as sitya "sit", sateya "stand", and rikya "lie" which are stative by default. These can be made dynamic by treating them as resultatives with the verb yiti "go". Take, for instance:

Kani sitya.
dog sit
"The dog is sitting."

Kani yiti sitya.
dog go sit
"The dog sits down."

Taynasora sateya.
dinosaur stand
"The dinosaur is standing."

Taynasora yiti sateya.
dinosaur go stand
"The dinosaur stands up."

Powi rikya.
cow lie
"The cow is lying."

Powi yiti rikya.
cow go lie
"The cow lays down."

[Qwynegold]

The stuff about subordinators and fractions could've used some example sentences, but the rest looks good.

[Travis B.]

The stuff about subordinators and fractions could've used some example sentences, but the rest looks good.

These have now been added.

[Qwynegold]

How would you say "2/3 of the food"?

[Travis B.]

How would you say "2/3 of the food"?

tari ye tway ku eta
three FRACT two GEN food
"two thirds of the food"

[Qwynegold]

Ah, that's straight forward.

[Travis B.]

Entering a state

A noun can be said to enter a state with resultative constructions where the main verb is wera "become" followed by a resultative stative verb, which may have an object. Take, for example:

Eta ya wera paraw.
food PST.PFV become blue
"The food became moldy."

Note that this is very similar to the resultative use of yiti "go" detailed above, with the distinction that yiti is volitional in this context while wera is non-volitional.

[Travis B.]

"Come" and "go"

Yiti "go" and kwema "come" are frequently combined with other verbs to indicate motion and direction in SVC's. Take, for instance:

Taynasora ya nema powi kwema.
dinosaur PST.PFV take cow come
"The dinosaur brought the cow."

Kani ya yiti sitya supa rita.
dog PST.PFV go sit ADESS rock
"The dog went and sat on the rock."

Powi ya kwema rikya supa karasa.
cow PST.PFV come lie ADESS grass.
"The cow came and lied down on the grass."