Alignment
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An explanation of the Syntactic Alignment of Thörrthekan
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 2 Aug 2016, 04:47.
[comments] glf<wip>
6. My name is...
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Thörrthekan is a Trigger language with topic dropping. Dropping occurs when the topic is explicit or obvious from context, and can be either the agent or patient of the sentence.The notion of a dog eating a fish for example could be rendered in the following ways, all with very slightly different connotations. (NB it is the indirect noun which goes unmarked in Thörrthekan):
a)
Tro
PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech.PERFPerfect (aspect/tense)
have verb-ed=
trɔ
fgösn-ed
eat-3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee.AVAgent trigger (voice)
Austronesian alignment; triggers Nom-Acc
ɸgœsnəd [greisk-er]
[dog-SGSingular (number)
one countable entity.DRDirect (case)
unmarked case, vs oblique or indirect]
[grɛiskər] břast
fish.SGSingular (number)
one countable entity.IDRIndirect (case)
indirect or oblique, vs direct
bɯɐst
[The dog] ate a fish (speakers are both aware of the dog in question, the fish is new information. A possible answer to ‘What did the dog eat?)
b)
Tro
PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech.PERFPerfect (aspect/tense)
have verb-ed=
trɔ
fgösn-k
eat-3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee.PVPatient trigger (voice)
Austronesian alignment; triggers ERG-ABS
ɸgœsŋk [greisk]
[dog-SGSingular (number)
one countable entity.IDRIndirect (case)
indirect or oblique, vs direct]
[grɛisk] břast-er
fish.SGSingular (number)
one countable entity.DRDirect (case)
unmarked case, vs oblique or indirect
bɯɐstər
[A/the dog] ate the fish (The dog is clear from context, but the fish is new information. Answers ‘What did he[the dog] eat?’)
c)
Tro
PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech.PERFPerfect (aspect/tense)
have verb-ed=
trɔ fgösn-ed
eat-3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee.AVAgent trigger (voice)
Austronesian alignment; triggers Nom-Acc
ɸgœsnəd greisk-er
grɛiskər
[
[ bɯɐst]
The dog ate [a fish] (Perhaps an answer to ‘What smells of fish?’)
d)
Tro
PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech.PERFPerfect (aspect/tense)
have verb-ed=
trɔ fgösn-k
eat-3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee.PVPatient trigger (voice)
Austronesian alignment; triggers ERG-ABS
ɸgœsŋk greisk
dog.SGSingular (number)
one countable entity.IDRIndirect (case)
indirect or oblique, vs direct
grɛisk [břast-er]
[fish-SGSingular (number)
one countable entity.DRDirect (case)
unmarked case, vs oblique or indirect]
[ bɯɐstər]
A dog ate [the fish] (‘Who ate my fish?!’)
As is hopefully clear from the comments, topic dropping in combination with judicious selection of one’s trigger pattern allows for a good deal of nuance in relatively small constructions. Of course all of the above could just as easily be said with their topics intact, but in all but the most careful of speech this would come across as laboured.
It should be made clear that Thörrthekan doesn’t display Topic/Comment alignment in any way. Small-t topic is used on a purely discursive level, with no easily definable grammatical function beyond nuance and expedience.
At it’s most extreme, the shortest permissible sentence is simply a verb:
e)
[sä]
[NPSTNon-past (tense)
present, continuous and future.CONTContinuative (tense/aspect)
continuous or durational action=]
sæ cnok-et
crush-1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I.AVAgent trigger (voice)
Austronesian alignment; triggers Nom-Acc
çnɔkət
[I’m] crushing [them]! (‘What are you doing to my precious flowers?’) ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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