The Dailies. October 15
Did you work on your language today? Create any new rules of grammar or syntax? New progress on a script? New words in your lexicon?
On the other hand, do any excavating or reading or enjoying stuff you’ve already created? Do you have any favorites to share?
How did you conlang today?
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One thought on “The Dailies. October 15”
Yesterday, just lots of reading and some noodling at things without results. I was trying to figure out some word order stuff and got a comparison to decide between.
Argument Order:
Spontaneously incorporated. If this was an actually fused verb, it would be more like:
I’m not sure I like that there’s a difference but it makes sense kinda? Still pondering this.
Pronominal Prefixes:
Today, on the other hand, I’ve been poring over Bybee, and had the most obvious ephiphany: there were two sequential orders (possibly more but good enough) that are responsible for the floating nature of the agent marker.
A verb incorporating another verb leads to suffixes and usually forbids the agentive suffix on the stem, requiring it to move to the auxiliary, leading to the odd mutability of how case is marked.
This is because it’s an auxiliary. The final vowel (part of the original stem) only resurfaces to make explicit that it’s not a grammatical vowel, which dissimilates from the agent-marking vowel or the original patientive construction.
Patientives are unaccented (their original state) unless in an unexpected slot or for emphasis, as the imperative. Dative-benefactive-comitatives seem to only show up word-initial.