Minhast: Difference between revisions

The implications of Minhast's polysyntheticity impacts on the language's syntax.  It provides a wide range of grammatical tools that can make precise distinctions as well as provide the speaker numerous options for expressive effect and discourse.

Minhast has two classes of morphemes for joining two or more NPs into a larger phrase, one set being conjunctions, and another set called either ''ligatures'' or ''connectives'' which bind either mutually interdependent NPs (e.g. possessive phrases), or adjuncts to the nuclear clause.  Most of the Minhast linguistic literature uses the latter term ''connectives'', as in this article.  The purpose of both conjunctions and connectives is to link two or more phrases together to form a cohesive unit.  However, there are major differences between the two.  Conjunctions simply link a series of NPs with no implication that the individual NP units are interdependent.  The connectives, on the other hand, are required for interdependent NPs or other adjuncts (e.g. evidential particles), otherwise the phrase would be ungrammatical when the connective is omitted.  An example would be a possessive construction; omission of the connective min render the sentence ungrammatical because two NPs, namely the possessor and possessum, are “stranded”, and a possessive relationship cannot be inferred from the stranded NPs.