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Common (na Xafen): Difference between revisions
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Common has isolating tendencies. It prefers an SVO word order but uses case marking on its mandatory articles and has relatively free phrase order. It uses ergative-absolutive alignment, which is unusual for an SVO language, but Trafalgar speculates that Davidson didn't have a full grasp on what he was doing when he created this aspect of Common.[https://webconlang.infiniterecursion.ca/article/common/114/] It does not have grammatical gender, but the original version of the language did, and traces of the original system remain in the language. | Common has isolating tendencies. It prefers an SVO word order but uses case marking on its mandatory articles and has relatively free phrase order. It uses ergative-absolutive alignment, which is unusual for an SVO language, but Trafalgar speculates that Davidson didn't have a full grasp on what he was doing when he created this aspect of Common.[https://webconlang.infiniterecursion.ca/article/common/114/] It does not have grammatical gender, but the original version of the language did, and traces of the original system remain in the language. | ||
The structure of Common is very pro-drop with many elements in specific roles being able to be dropped very readily. Verbs are unique for declaring their core argument structure without agreeing with any of their arguments. Old Common had an abstract/concrete gender distinction, but this was lost in the transition to modern High Common. | The structure of Common is very pro-drop with many elements in specific roles being able to be dropped very readily. Verbs are unique for declaring their core argument structure without agreeing with any of their arguments. All arguments to a verb may be dropped if clear from context. Old Common had an abstract/concrete gender distinction, but this was lost in the transition to modern High Common. | ||
Common is notable for a very specific phrase structure with both head first and head last qualities. Every phrase has a left head that carries all of the grammatical information and a right head that carries the most salient semantic information. It has four cases, three numbers, two tenses, two aspects and two moods, as well as declaring five valence patterns. | Common is notable for a very specific phrase structure with both head first and head last qualities. Every phrase has a left head that carries all of the grammatical information and a right head that carries the most salient semantic information. It has four cases, three numbers, two tenses, two aspects and two moods, as well as declaring five valence patterns. | ||