Syntax
3 min read · 630 words
Word Order
Although word order used to be free in common speech, a trend is growing to shift to SOV and head-final syntax. The position of the primary verb is fixed to word-final position, regardless of transitivity.
pa-n yája chêz-ô
1SG-Erg. Apple-Abs. Eat-Ces.Per.
“I ate an apple / I will eat an apple”
Notes:
- The indirect object’s position is loose, though it is always between the subject and the verb.
- In formal literature, the topic is always placed first in the sentence.
- The alignment of Adorish is ergative-absolutive.
Transitivity
Transitivity has no effect on the word order.
Information structure
Colloquial Adorish is now leaning towards using topic-first word order marked with a genitive pronoun, however there is not much precedent for it outside informal speech.
*yája eóse pa-n chêz-ô
Apple-Abs. 3SN-Gen. 1SG-Erg. Eat-Per.Ces.
“I ate the apple”
(lit: As for the apple, I ate)
Currently in standard Adorish, the preposition vo can be used to indicate topic:
pa-n yája vo chêz-so
1SG-Erg. Apple-Abs. Topic Eat-Ces.
“I ate an apple / I will eat an apple”
Also if the topic has already been mentioned by the user, it has to be substituted with a genitive pronoun:
Q: tzoe rýnco tzíac? (Where is the apple?)
A: pan eóse chêzôpe (I just ate it)
Head-finality
Since Adorish is head final, the head of the phrase always goes last in a sentence:
Basic noun phrases
the noun comes after its modifying adjective:
aej-î ámbômizn-ê
Smooth-Abs. Technique-Abs.
“fluid technique”
Postpositional phrases
Adorish adpositions go after the noun:
Acóri je
Acoria-Abs. For
“For Acoria”
Linked nouns
nouns linked with a conjunction (a prefix that gets marked on the last noun):
ae-rô y-nôr
Wind-Abs. Or-God-Abs.
“Either the wind or the gods”
Possessive phrases:
the possessor comes before the noun, since possession in Adorish is closely linked to adjectives:
tôv-oe maech-á
Man-Gen. Pet-Abs.
“The man’s pet”
Adverbial phrases:
Adverbs come before the verb:
bôldô-n i-líza
Strong-Adv. Non.-Walk
“Boldly walking”
Interrogative sentences
Interrogative sentences show no change in word order. The interrogative mood is used to mark any question. The interrogative pronoun, if present, must go at the beginning of the verb:
vô Brítis-o már-lô?
2S-Abs. British-Abs. Cop-Int.
“Are you British?”
To denote surprise of learning something, one can add the topic particle vo to the sentence:
ô vo Brítis-o már-lô
2S-Abs. Topic British-Abs. Cop-Int.
“You are British?”
Dependent clauses (Includes subordination and coordination)
A dependent clause linked by coordination goes after the main clause, but a dependent clause linked by subordination goes before. Linking is often done through complementizers or by conjunctions prefixed to the subject.
If a subject with the same person and number appears in both clauses, the dependent subject can be dropped.
Compliment clauses
Complement clauses are encoded using the relative complementizer na-:
pa zío-so na-líza-so
1SG-Erg. Know-Ces. Rel.-Walk-Ces.
“I learnt that he moved”
Relative Clauses
Relative clauses go before the noun they modify and the verb must be in the non-finite form:
*pa ís-e n-â-esen tôv-o mar
1S-Abs. 3SA-Gen. Rel.-Non.-Knock Man-Abs. Cop.-Sta.Con.
“I am the one who knocks”
*Note: a proper translation for that sentence would probably be pa ésenae mar
Valency
The active, reflexive and causative denote the subject as an agent and the passive denotes the subject as a patient.
Transitive verbs (verbs which require a predicate noun) can change from Active to Passive, Reflexive or Causative using verb morphology. Intransitive verbs (verbs which can’t take a predicate noun) cannot take the Passive valency changer, but can take the Reflexive and Causative.
Copula
The copula is only used for linking one concept to another as the verb már-/mar-. It is not used for identifying something as existing.
The verb tzíac is used for denoting the position of something. Both of these copulas are derived from Old Adorish prepositions.