Common (na Xafen): Difference between revisions

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*'''Mood (na Puesyn)'''. There are two grammatical moods:

**Realis (na zra puesyn): The action is real and concrete.

**Irrealis (na sihys puesyn): The action is somehow hypothetical or potentially counterfactual. The reason why the moods are called "realis" and "irrealis" rather than "indicative" and "subjunctive," which arguably is what they actually are since they are mediated by inflection, is because the irrealis used to be indicated by an affix in Old Common. During the breakdown of the gender system, the abstract gender agreement form of the auxiliary was repurposed to indicate the irrealis, but the terminology used to refer to it was not updated.

**Irrealis (na sihys puesyn): The action is somehow hypothetical or potentially counterfactual. The reason why the moods are called "realis" and "irrealis" rather than "indicative" and "subjunctive," which arguably is what they actually are since they are mediated by inflection, is because the irrealis used to be indicated by an affix in Old Common. During the breakdown of the gender system, the abstract gender agreement form of the auxiliary was repurposed to indicate the irrealis, but the terminology used to refer to it was not updated.[https://webconlang.infiniterecursion.ca/article/common/47/]

The most important of these categories is valence. There are actually five verbal auxiliaries - one for each valence pattern. Each auxiliary then inflects for tense, aspect and mood in a separate conjugational paradigm.

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===Modifiers===

====Noun Modifiers====[https://webconlang.infiniterecursion.ca/article/common/7/]

As in English, Common has a natural, preferred order of modifiers in a noun phrase. This order is very similar to that of English, which is unsurprising given the common head-final word building of both languages, the prevalence of this approximate order in many of the world's languages, and the direct influence of English on Common. The most general order of elements in the noun phrase is as follows, from beginning to end. Mandatory elements are in bold italic. Elements which have a strict position that never deviates when present are in bold. Elements which are generally found in this position but which may have exceptions in order to convey a special meaning or for literary effect are undecorated. The head term, which is mandatory if any modifiers are present, is in italic.

#'''''Article'''''

#'''Action'''

#'''Location''' (Demonstrative)

#'''Quantity''' (Number/Amount)

#'''Possessor'''

#Size

#Opinion

#Manner

#Age

#Shape

#Color

#Origin

#Material

#Purpose

#'''Possessing Terms''''

#'''Modifying Terms'''

#''Head Term''

Besides the fact that Common has more of a tendency to put size before opinion than English (although this is also a common pattern in English, think 'Big Bad Wolf'), the order is identical to English.

Some of these categories can be fulfilled with a prepositional phrase, and in Common, prepositions are modifiers, but a preposition with an object cannot stay between the article and the head term and has to move to after the head term. Such phrases appear after the head term in the reverse order that they would have appeared if they stayed in front of the noun, so a prepositional phrase of purpose would appear before a prepositional phrase of origin. That is, these modifying units stay the same relative closeness to the head term regardless of whether they appear before or after it.

The Action category is a placeholder for relative clauses that modify the noun. Such phrases are introduced with a relative pronoun/modifier that always has an object and hence never appears between the article and the head term and always appears after the head term. Their position at the beginning of the sequence accounts for the fact that in real use, they will appear after any prepositional phrases, i.e., furthest from the head term.

'''Traces (Naz Tres)'''

As an aside, Common grammarians think that when an element is removed from the article-head term bracket because it has a object, it leaves a trace behind. So take for example the phrase:

''Na citit paluh''<br>

The happy dog

That could also be legitimately expressed, dropping the head term, as:

''Na citit yn''

That translates approximately to "the happy one." If "citit" weren't there, you could say simply "na," (or "na'n" in more colloquial speech, where people tend to avoid bare third person pronouns) but the presence of "citit" triggers the rule requiring a head term, and the dummy "yn" drops in. Now lets say that the happiness were expressed periphrastically instead of directly with a modifier, so it is reframed as an action rather than a manner.

''Na paluh su se an citit''<br>

3.SG.DEF.NOM dog RELN.ABS NTRN.NPST.NPRF.REAL be happy

Common grammarians think there is a trace left behind where "su" theoretically was in the phrase before the "modifier with an object must move out of the bracket" rule was applied. We'll indicate this with '''T'''.

''Na '''T''' paluh su se an citit''<br>

3.SG.DEF.NOM TRACE dog RELN.ABS NTRN.NPST.NPRF.REAL be happy

So if you drop the head term now, this happens:

''Na '''T''' yn su se an citit''<br>

3.SG.DEF.NOM TRACE one RELN.ABS NTRN.NPST.NPRF.REAL be happy

According to this analysis, the reason why the "yn" is mandatory and you can't say "na su se an citit" is because of the trace left behind triggering the "head term required with a modifier" rule.

====Verb Modifiers (Adverbials)====[https://webconlang.infiniterecursion.ca/article/common/9/]

====Prepositions====

Common (na Xafen): Difference between revisions

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