Standard Amaian Grammar Sketch
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morphology, syntax, pragmatics
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 18 Aug 2016, 06:58.
[comments] grammarverbspronounsamaiannounsmorphologystandard amaiansyntaxconjugationtoneword tonepragmaticstopicfocusama
2. Amaian Clitics
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3. Amaian Tone [WIP]
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Here the morphology, syntax, and pragmatics of Standard
Not-Canonical Amaian, spoken in much of western and central 
Old Amaia, will be outlined. Phonology and morphophonology will also be mentioned when relevant.Amaian has a fortis/lenis contrast in both vowels and consonants. There are three word tones that apply to bisyllabic feet. These descend historically from nasalized vowels and elided /s/. They are referred to as neutral tone (-Ø), -p tone, and -t tone. Neutral tone is the most common and can be considered unmarked, -p tone is next most common, and -t tone can be considered most marked.
Velar/uvular harmony is the process by which words may not phonetically contain both velars and uvulars: following the velar or uvular quality of the first velar or uvular consonant, all following velar and uvular consonants are forced into that place of articulation.
Similarly, ae/e harmony is in process, where all instances of ae and e conform to whichever one is first in the word. As ae and e steadily merge in contemporary Amaian speech, this process has actually slowed due to the confusion of one for another, and some new loans violate the constraint even though the harmony process came about relatively recently.
Consonant clusters where either consonant is fortis are not allowed and are resolved by leniting both consonants. Word-initial consonant clusters are extremely limited and are resolved through often-drastic changes. Consonant clusters with x as a member are not allowed and are usually resolved by having the x assimilate completely to whatever the preceding segment is.
Extrametrical syllables are phonemically toneless and, fulfilling the Obligatory Contour Principle, these toneless syllables are produced with a level pitch contrastive with that of the previous syllable: after a low tone, a high tone is produced and vice versa.
Pitch 'resets' may occur at the beginning of a new phrase, clause, or sentence. The word before a pitch resets is always treated as being in prepausal position, and prepausal words may be pronounced slightly differently, for example having a voiceless lax epenthetic vowel suffixed to any fortis word-final consonant.
Amaian has nouns, adjectival nouns, pronouns, verbs, verbal modifiers (aka adverbs), verbal clitics, and nonverbal clitics.
Phonologically, nouns, adjectival nouns, long-form pronouns, verbs, and verbal modifiers consist of two or more syllables, although many are underlyingly monosyllabic and gain an extra syllable through infixation of <xV> immediately after the word's vowel, where V is a short copy of the vowel. Meanwhile, short-form pronouns and almost all clitics consist of just one syllable, while some other clitics are two syllables.
Nouns, adjectival nouns, pronouns, verbal modifiers, and nonverbal clitics do not inflect. Verbs and verbal clitics do.
TODO:quantifiers as separate word class that conjugates for focus? also interjections and ideophones. also do we want echo constructions in nouns and verbs? reduplication for non-collective plurality in nouns?
There are two series of pronouns: long-form pronouns and short-form pronouns. Their usage is complex and mainly governed by pragmatic concerns (see section on pragmatics). The long-form pronouns derive from inflected copula forms: in historical times Amaian languages had productive inflection for person on verbs. Due to influence from
Kalchelian, a neighboring though unrelated language which has come into extensive contact with Not-Canonical Amaian, Amaian has fairly recently developed sets of dual pronouns as well, but only in the long form.The short-form pronouns are actually clitics which usually attach to following words. They are unique in the field of Amaian clitics in that they remain extrametrical instead of forming part of the word prosodically (see section on clitics for more information). The long-form pronouns stand on their own phonologically.
| Long-Form Amaian Pronouns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| 1 | guuge | maaxae | maage |
| 2 | boogep | booxae | |
| 3 | ymege, nege | ymexe, nexe | |
| Short-Form Amaian Pronouns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| 1 | gu= | ma= | ma= |
| 2 | bo= | bo= | |
| 3 | ne= | ||
TODO:logophoric pronouns?
Verbal inflection in
Not-Canonical Amaian is notable in that while many categories may be marked simultaneously, each category contains relatively few possible values. For example, distributivity, voice, polarity, mood, evidentiality, speaker attitude, and deictic path are all categories of inflection, each of these categories only contains from two to five or so values, from active vs. middle for voice and affirmative vs. negative for polarity to declarative vs. interrogative vs. imperative/suggestive vs. hortative vs. inferential for mood. In terms of speaker attitude, the two possible values are neutral and apprehensive, and for deictic path the three possible values are neutral, towards center, and away from center.This complex inflection is accomplished through a combination of tone changes, total and partial reduplication, infixation and consonant changes, and/or vowel changes.
Distributivity in Amaian is used for cases where multiple actors are involved, and each actor is doing something individually. Morphologically, it is formed by a process of reduplication: if we have AB as the syllables of a disyllabic verb, AB > AABB, and if we have A as the syllable of a monosyllabic verb, A > A-xa-A-xa. Note that consonant clusters that aren't lenis-lenis get reduced to lenis-lenis form, and Cx clusters become C. For verbs longer than two syllables (which are extremely rare), usually the first two syllables undergo AABB reduplication, and the rest of the verb is just appended on unmodified.
noomp > noom-a-noom-ap 'everyone knowing something different'
milae > mi-mi-lae-lae 'everyone pinching off a different thing'
Middle voice in Amaian is used in cases where an actor is acting on themselves or is doing something for their own benefit or directed at themselves. A verb marked with this form can never take either a direct or indirect object. Middle voice is somewhat lexicalized and often verbs change meaning significantly between active and middle forms.
Morphologically, it is marked by a lengthening of the first vowel and change of tone to the -t tone.
chilu > chi-i-lu-t 'do oneself a favor, pay oneself'
Negation in Amaian verbs is used in declarative or interrogative clauses, but only very rarely in interrogative clauses. The clause, if declarative, may be either independent or subordinate. In both cases it is marked morphologically by a change in the onset of the first syllable of the verb, and also by the presence of a negative enclitic =mamm. Negation in other types of clauses is handled differently, usually with the help of a dedicated portmanteau clitic.
The negative form of the verb must be learned for each verb form— it is irregular. However, verbs that begin with the same initial almost always change that initial to the same thing in the negative form. Often this is an infixation of <m> after the first consonant, or turning the first consonant into /m/. Other times the transformation may be more complex.
cha > ch-m-a=mamm 'not own'
xadd > m-ad=mamm 'not pull'
varra > km-arra=mamm 'not plant'
Amaian verbs conjugate for two moods: the suggestive and the interrogative. These are mutually exclusive. However, Amaian verbs also conjugate for the 'apparent' or 'nonvisual evidential', which may be considered a type of mood, and may be combined with either the suggestive or the interrogative and are treated in the following section 'Evidentiality'.
The suggestive can be used as an imperative or as a kind of optative or jussive. It just represents something the speaker wishes the listener would do. However, the conjugated form presented here is for positive wishes only: wishing that someone stop something or avoid doing something is expressed either with the apprehensive or a clitic.
The suggestive is formed morphologically through reduplication of the first syllable in the verb. The prosodic beginning of the word is moved to the word beginning; that is, unlike the short-form pronoun clitics, the reduplicated syllable is not treated as extrametrical. In the orthography, the first instance of the syllable is set apart with <->.
luuy > luuy-luuy 'it would be nice if you would pull it'
guechi > gue-guechi 'it would be nice if you would sleep'
The interrogative converts the clause into a polar question, asking whether the event presented is valid or not.
If the speaker would like to ask about the identity or quality of the subject, direct object, or even other noun-like constituents in the sentence, the most common way to form the interrogative is with the dme- prefix on the verb as well as interrogative marking on the verb. Only one constituent may be questioned with this construction, and the interpretation of the constituent questioned is governed pragmatically by the listener's presuppositions about the situation (more on this in the pragmatics section).
The interrogative form is marked morphologically by lengthening of the last vowel in the verb. If it is already long, a clitic =xaa may be used instead. Some speakers are beginning to use this clitic with all interrogative verb forms, or use it instead of the morphological marking on the verb itself.
cha > chaxa-a, dme-chaxa-a 'do you own it?', 'what do you own?/who owns it?'
milae > mila-ae, dme-mila-ae 'do you pluck it?', 'what do you pluck?/who plucks it?'
dderii > dderii=xaa, dme-dderii=xaa 'do you turn it?', 'what do you turn?/who turns it?'
The special verb raaechaaedd 'what are you doing?' is inherently interrogative with the questioned constituent being the action that the listener is engaged in. It does not take any dme- or =xaa.
The 'apparent' or 'nonvisual evidential' is used in Amaian for events that the speaker is unsure of and has not seen, but is somewhat convinced of the veracity of. An English translation could be something like 'it seems that' or 'apparently'. When in a sentence with boogep '2S.long.form' as the subject or possessor of the subject, it can translate to more of an optative, but with the speaker more involved and excited for the fulfillment of the act than the plain suggestive.
Morphologically, this form is expressed with a verbal suffix that dates back to Proto-East-Mirarian, being derived from a suffix -gwë/-gwe that originally meant 'want'. Nowadays, the most productive form that it takes is -bue, but it can be seen in -be, -bbue, -bbe, -bae, and -bbae forms as well.
daxxo > daxxo-bue 'seems like it is flying into outer space'
milae > milae-bbae 'seems like they plucked it'
boogep guechi bolue-bue 'good night, lit. I do hope your night is good'
Amaian verbs may conjugate for apprehensiveness, meaning that the speaker is worried that the action in question may happen in the future and that the action in question is undesirable. When a verb is conjugated for both apprehensiveness and the suggestive, the meaning becomes 'do this, or else something bad will happen'. When the verb is conjugated for apprehensiveness and also takes the special circumfix clitic ku==qmo, the meaning is 'do not do this, or else something bad will happen.' The verb, when conjugated with both apprehensiveness and the nonvisual evidential, means something like 'it seems that this is beginning to happen and I do not like it': that is, it has evidential and speaker attitude meanings, but in addition to those carries an additional meaning of inchoative aspect and present tense.
Morphologically, the apprehensive is TODO, hopefully get some PEM on.
-Ci- infixation, treatment of initial syllable as extrametrical?
guechi > gue-gichi
Amaian verbs conjugate for three deictic paths, towards speaker (venitive), away from speaker (andative), and neutral. Conjugating for venitive or andative can also indicate that an event has good or bad implications for the speaker or subject of discourse. It can also indicate more of a dynamic aspect to the event.
Morphologically, the venitive and andative are marked through tone changes in the verb: -p tone is associated with the venitive, and neutral tone is associated with the andative. Naturally, this means that for verbs whose neutral form are in -Ø or -p tone, the neutral path form will share the same phonological form as either the venitive or andative form. Amaian recovers this information with clitics with are obligatory on the ambiguous venitive and andative forms, and extremely common on unambiguous forms: =yuub for venitive, and =xue for andative.
chiiha > chiiha=xue '(someone not me) is instructed, (I) am given bad instruction'
chiiha > chiihap, chiiha=yuubp '(I) am instructed'
raxaddp > raxad, raxad=due '(I) look out, look for danger'
raxaddp > raxad=yuubp '(I) perceive'
laam > laam=mue '(someone not me) eats meat away from me (towards them)'
laam > laaxamp, laam=yuubp '(I) eat meat'
While the verbal inflectional system manages many grammatical needs of Amaian, other tasks, such as aspect, are managed with Amaian's large system of clitics. In addition, as we have seen above, even some of the functions of the verb inflections, such as polarity and voice, are additionally taken up by clitics.
With clitics' importance in mind, it may prove useful to examine the variety of forms attested.
There are two main types of clitics: plain clitics and verbal clitics. Verbal clitics can conjugate for interrogative mood and negation. Plain clitics do not conjugate, and usually express location or other case-like and adposition-like functions.
Verbal clitics tend to express information on the clausal level, such as aspect and mood, and are usually located either on the right periphery or just after the verb.
The special plain clitic =mamm 'NEG' does not conjugate, although tightly attached to the verb, and the unique circumfix clitic ku==qmo 'apprehensive.NEG.IMP', traditionally treated as a plain clitic ku= and verbal clitic =qmo (homophonous with and derived from the clitic stay.NEG), does not conjugate either. In addition, the form dme=, which has mainly an anaphoric or cataphoric meaning, is traditionally considered an affix because it is always situated on the verb's immediate left and is not extrametrical, but is perhaps easier-described as more of an anomalous plain clitic.
(nominal modifier) (preposed quantifiers) N (postposed quantifiers and =demonstrative clitics)(=locational clitics) (pragmatic modifiers)
(dme=)(N)V(other V/verbal suffixes and clitics) (object) (ideophone)(=TAM/deictic clitics)(=mamm)
if V is a verbal clitic that can stand as the head of the clause, the (dme=) is added before the N that precedes the V.
SV(O)
adverbs can be anywhere in the clause really
this holds for declarative and interrogative questions
no contrast between whose and which: both are NOUN dme-V
dme- is used only when the omitted constituent is in focus
focused constituents move to immediate pre-V position, topicalized constituents can be moved to end of clause.
correlative-ish: mainly for non-restrictive relative clauses
CORREL.case.in.matrix.sentence as pronominal trace in matrix sentence
relative clause is actually a finite clause, which can be located anywhere in the sentence (usually sentence-initially or finally, or immediately before the trace)
nominalized: mainly for short and restrictive relative clauses
gapping strategy, relative clause immediately precedes noun in a possessive-like construction
types of imperative and hortative constructions
noun phrases taking contrastive topic role
interjections
pro-drop
clause-final clitics
embedding: S V(V O), the (V O) is treated as a constituent and can be subject to scrambling.
conjunctions between clauses: and, or, temporals, conditionals, comparatives, reason, purposive, etc. etc.
Pragmatic concerns govern much of Amaian morphology and syntax, much as in many other languages. Pragmatics
rehash earlier pragmatic things like pragmatic modifiers, dme=, scrambling
discource markers
the greeting exchange with formulaic expressions, common turn-taking behavior and backchanneling
marking politeness, wishes for sympathy, rudeness, advice, dealing with mismatched presuppositions
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