Old Matlic Syntax
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This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 8 Dec 2016, 07:04.
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3. Kuazhang Gender
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2. Old Matlic Syntax
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Old Matlic word order was relatively free, but there were some limitations.Sentences in Old Matlic could be either SVO, SOV, VSO, VOS, OSV, or OVS. This is to say that any subject-verb-object order is allowed, but some are more common than others.
Generally, sentences are either VSO or VOS. Which one is used is just a matter of personal preference, and speakers may readily use both in the same conversation. The meaning of the sentence is unaffected by which of the two is chosen. Both of these sentence orders are the most common word order by far, but are not the only possible ones.
In general, any word that comes before the verb is understood as the topic. So, an SVO sentence would mean that the subject was topicalized. It's because of this that sentence orders such as OSV and SOV are rare, since it's unlikely that both the subject and the object are topicalized.
Adjectives usually come before the noun they modify, but as are other parts of the syntax, this isn't a rigid rule. Once again, it's just a matter of personal preference and doesn't have much on an effect on the meaning.
Adpositions usually follow the noun they modify, but they behave in the same way as adjectives in that their position can be either before or after the noun.
However, an important thing to remember is that an adjective and an adposition may not be placed on the same side of a noun, however unambiguous the phrase may be.
Nouns or pronouns in the genitive, dative, instrumental, and locative cases can all modify a noun as well. As for the above rule, these are treated as adjectives, but they must be further away form the noun than any other adjectives.
All adjectives have a form that functions like an adverb, except that it can only modify adjectives, not verbs. Verbs take a normal adjective as a modifier instead to avoid confusion with any adverbs that modify said adjective. Adjectives used to modify verbs often take the neuter gender, but may sometimes take a different gender to add a nuanced meaning to the verb, or based on the meaning of the verb itself. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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