conlang.phundrak.com/docs/proto-nyqy/syntax.org

#+setupfile: ../headers
* Syntax
** World Classes
*** Nouns
# - What are the distributional properties of nouns?
# - What are the structural properties of nouns?
# - What are the major formally distinct subcategories of nouns?
# - What is the basic structure of the noun word (for polysynthetic
#   languages) and/or noun phrases (for more isolating languages)?
Nouns in Proto-Ñyqy generally refer to defined entities, such as
objects, people, concepts, or events. Regardless of their role during
locution, a noun bears no morphological information such as its
syntactic role or its number. However, nouns can associate with each
other and act as adjectives.
# More on that in
# §[[#Structural-Preview-World-Classes-Modifiers-Descriptive-Adjectives-pcpelau058j0]].
Noun phrases in Proto-Ñyqy are head-first, meaning the noun in noun
phrases come relatively early although the former is built around the
former and not exclusively after it. Noun phrases are mainly found as
agents or patients of a sentence, but they can also be found in
genitive and dative constructions.

The nouns could most likely take genitive pronouns, but how they
interacted exactly is yet unsure. The

**** Countables and Uncountables                                :noexport:

**** Proper Nouns                                               :noexport:

*** Pronouns and Anaphoric Clitics
# - Does the language have free pronouns and/or anaphoric clitics?
#   (These are distinct from grammatical agreement.)
# - Give a chart of the free pronouns and/or anaphoric clitics.
**** Personal Pronouns
It seems only three pronouns existed in Proto-Ñyqy, one for each of
the persons you would find in a typical language, as shown below.

#+name: table:pronouns
#+caption: Proto-Ñyqy pronouns
| Person | Pronoun   |
|--------+-----------|
| 1      | {{{recon(qy)}}} |
| 2      | {{{recon(bú)}}} |
| 3      | {{{recon(zø)}}} |

It appears Proto-Ñyqy pronouns did not have any morphological rule to
make them agree in number and due to the apparent lack of gender
neither did they agree with it. However, it is possible that at some
stage of the development of the language, Proto-Ñyqy began affixing
cardinal numbers in order to its pronouns up until the number “six”
{{{recon(ñy)}}} which would have marked a general plural. It is very much
possible all numbers up to {{{recon(ñy)}}} were used with pronouns, however
only remains of it as well as {{{recon(qi)}}} (/two/) for some dual or paucal,
and in the case of the Tiltinian family {{{recon(nø)}}} (/three/) was used for
trial and later on for paucal. No remains of {{{recon(gø)}}}, {{{recon(co)}}} or
any number higher than {{{recon(ñy)}}} is found in its daughter languages.
It is also unlikely {{{recon(mi)}}} (/one/) was ever used to mark the
singular, or at least its usage never persisted in its recorded
daughter languages as it cannot be reconstructed with our current
knowledge.
# The order in which these cardinal numbers are affixed to
# the pronoun depend on the numbers’ word order described in
# [[#Structural-Preview-World-Classes-Modifiers-Numerals-4gvelau058j0]].

- {{{recon(møgusqim qy ij)}}}

  village towards 1sg go

  I’m going to the village
- {{{recon(møgusqim qyqi ij)}}}

  village towards 1 two/du go

  We both are going to the village
- {{{recon(møgusqim qynø ij)}}}

  village towards 1 3/tri/pauc go

  We three are going to the village
- {{{recon(møgusqim ñyqy ij)}}}

  village towards six/pl 1 go

  We are going to the village

It doesn’t appear either that there was any morphology associated to
their grammatical case. All of its daughter languages have at least a
distinction between nominative, accusative, and genitive pronouns, but
it appears they all evolved after the Proto-Ñyqy breakup, with no
relation between the main daughter language families. The best example
is the striking difference between the Andelian and the Mojhal
families despite the fact they both come from Proto-Mojhal-Andelian
which is the earliest known language to split off from Proto-Ñyqy, as
well as Proto-Tiltinian and Old Pritian which again have no
similarities regarding their pronoun declensions. The only common
roots found are these three pronouns described in [[./syntax.md#personal-pronouns][Personal Pronouns]].

Personal pronouns are free pronouns which do not need to be bound to
other elements in a sentence.
1. {{{recon(qibú qy qe)}}}

   du  2 1sg see

   I see them both
2. {{{recon(qyim ñocm qe)}}}

   1sg DAT someone see

   Does anyone see me?

   {{{recon(ee qy)}}}

   yes 1sg

   Yes, me.

**** Demonstrative Pronouns
Four levels of demonstratives seems to have existed in Proto-Ñyqy:
- {{{recon(bœce)}}} :: near the speaker
- {{{recon(pue)}}} :: near the interlocutor
- {{{recon(yqe)}}} and {{{recon(jœe)}}} :: distant from the speakers

It is interesting to see here a common pattern among languages which
is demonstratives pronouns coming from words meaning “here” or
“there”. In that case, these pronouns are derived from {{{recon(bœc)}}},
{{{recon(pu)}}}, {{{recon(yq)}}}, and {{{recon(jœ)}}}.

We are not sure about the difference between {{{recon(yq)}}} and {{{recon(jœ)}}}.
It is theorized they had differences in distance between the element
described by the pronoun and the speakers, maybe one describing
something that could be seen and the other not. In any case, only one
of the two survived in each language family so we cannot compare their
use in documented languages.

**** Possessive Pronouns                                        :noexport:
*** Verbs                                                        :noexport:
# - What are the distributional properties of verbs?
# - What are the structural properties of verbs?
# - What are the major subclasses of verbs?
# - Describe the order of various verbal operators within the verbal
# - word or verb phrase.
# - Give charts of the various paradigms, e.g. person marking,
# - tense/aspect/mode, etc. Indicate major allomorphic variants.
# - Are directional and/or locational notions expressed in the verb or
# - verb phrase at all?
#   - Is this operation obligatory, i.e. does one member of the
#     paradigm have to occur in every finite verb or verb phrase?
#   - Is it productive, i.e. can the operation be specified for al
#     verb stems, and does it have the same meaning with each one?
#     (Nothing is fully productive, but some operations are more
#     productive than others.)
#   - Is this operation primarily coded morphologically, analytically,
#     or lexically? Are there any exceptions to the general case?
#   - Where in the verb phrase or verbal word is this operation likely
#     to appear? Can it occur in more than one place?
**** Verbal Structure
**** Verbal Derivations
**** Verbal Inflexions
*** Modifiers                                                    :noexport:
# - If you posit a morphosyntactic category of adjectives, give
#   evidence for not grouping theseforms with the verbs or nouns. What
#   characterizes a form as being an adjective in this language?
# - How can you characterize semantically the class of concepts coded
#   by this formal category?
# - Do adjectives agree with their heads (e.g. in number, case, and/or
#   noun class)?
# - What kind of system does the language employ for counting?
# - How high can a fluent native speaker count without resorting
#   either to words from another language or to a generic word like
#   /many/? Exemplify the system up to this point.
# - Do numerals agree with their head nouns (number, case, noun
#   class, ...)?
**** Descriptive Adjectives
**** Non-Numeral Quantifiers
**** Numerals
*** Adverbs                                                      :noexport:
# - What characterikes a form as being an adverb in this language? If
#   you posit a distinct class of adverbs, argue for why these forms
#   should not be treated as nouns, verbs, or adjectives.
# - For each kind of adverb listed in this section, list a few members
#   of the type, and specify whether there are any restrictions
#   relavite to that type, e.g. where they can come in a clause, any
#   morphemes common to the type, etc.
# - Are any of these classes of adverbs related to older
#   complement-taking (matrix) verbs?
*** Adpositions                                                  :noexport:
*** Grammatical Particules                                       :noexport:
** Constituants Order Typology                                    :noexport:
*** Constituants Order in Main Clauses
# - What is the neutral order of free elements in the unit?
# - Are there variations?
# - How do the variant orders function?
# - Specific to the main clause constituent order: What is the
#   pragmatically neutral order of constituents (A/S, P, and V) in
#   basic clauses of the language?
*** Constituants Order in Nominal Clauses
# - Describe the order(s) of elements in the noun phrase.
*** Constituants Order in Verbal Clauses
# - Where do auxliaries occur in relation to the semantically “main”
#   verb?
# - Where do verb-phrase adverbs occur with respect to the verb and
#   auxiliaries?
*** Adpositional Phrases
# - Is the language dominantly prepositional or post-positional? Give
#   examples.
# - Do many adpositions come from nouns or verbs?
*** Comparatives
# - Does the language have one or more grammaticalized comparative
#   constructions? If so, what is the order of the standard, the
#   marker and the quality by which an item is compared to the
#   standard?
*** Questions
# - In yes/no questions, if there is a question particle, where does
#   it occur?
# - In information questions, where does the question word occur?
** Structure of a Nominal Group                                   :noexport:
*** Composed Words
# - Is there noun-noun compounding that results in a noun (e.g.
#   /windshield/)?
# - How do you know it is compounding?
# - Is there noun-verb (or verb-noun) compounding that results in a
#   noun (e.g. /pickpocket/, /scarecrow/)?
# - Are these processes productive (like noun-verb in English
#   can-opener)? How common is compounding?
*** Denominalization
# - Are there any processes (productive or not) that form a verb from
#   a noun?
# - An adjective from a noun?
# - An adverb from a noun?
*** Numbers
# - Is number expressed in the noun phrase?
# - Is the distinction between singular and non-singular obligatory,
#   optional, or completely absent in the noun phrase?
# - If number marking is “optional”, when does it tend to occur, and
#   when does it tend not to occur?
# - If number marking is obligatory, is number overtly expressed for
#   all noun phrases or only some subclasses of noun phrases, such as
#   animate?
# - What non-singular distinctions are there?
*** Grammatical Case
# - Do nouns exhibit morphological case?
# - If so, what are the cases? (The functions of the cases will be
#   elaborated in later sections)
*** Articles and Demonstratives
# - Do noun phrases have articles?
# - If so, are they obligatory or optional, and under what
#   circumstances do they occur?
# - Are they separate words, or bound morphemes?
# - Is there a class of classes of demonstratives as distinct from
#   articles?
# - How many degrees of distance are there in the system of
#   demontsratives?
# - Are there other distinctions beside distances?
*** Possessives
# - How are possessors expressed in the noun phrase?
# - Do nouns agree with their possessors? Do possessors agree with
#   possessed nouns? Neither, or both?
# - Is there a distinction between alienable and inalienable
#   possesson?
# - Are there other types of possession?
# - When the possessor is a full noun, where does it usually come with
#   respect to the possessed noun?
*** Classes (including Gender)
# - Is there a noun class system?
# - What are the classes and how are they manifested in the noun
#   phrase?
# - What dimension of reality is most central to the noun class system
#   (e.g. animacy, shape, function, etc.)? What other dimensions are
#   relevant?
# - Do the classifiers occur with numerals? Adjectives? Verbs?
# - What is their function in these contexts?
*** Diminution/Augmentation
# - Does the language employ diminutive and/or augmentative operators
#   in the noun or noun phrase?
# - Questions to answer for all nominal operations:
#   - Is this operation obligatory, i.e. does one member of the
#     paradigm have to occur in every full noun phrase?
#   - Is it productive, i.e. can the operation be specified for all
#     full noun phrases and does it have the same meaning with each
#     one? (Nothing is fully productive, but some operations are more
#     so than others.)
#   - Is this operation primarily expressed lexically,
#     morphologically, or analytically?
# - Where in the noun phrase is this operation likely to be located?
# - Can it occur in more than one place?
** Predicates and Linked Constructions                            :noexport:
*** Nominal Predicates
# - How are proper inclusion and equative predicates formed?
# - What restrictions are there, if any, on the TAM marking of such
#   clauses?
*** Adjective Predicates
# - How are predicate adjective formed? (Include a separate section on
#   predicate adjectives only if they are structurally distinct from
#   predicate nominals.)
*** Locative Predicates
# - How are locational clauses (or predicate locatives) formed?
*** Existential Predicates
# - How are existential clauses formed? (Give examples in different
#   tense/aspects, especially if there is significant variation.)
# - How are negative existentials formed?
# - Are there extended uses of existential morphology? (Provide
#   pointers to other relevant sections of the grammar.)
*** Possessive Clauses
# - How are possessive clauses formed?
** Verbal Groups Structure                                        :noexport:
** Intransitive Clauses                                           :noexport:
** Ditransitive Clauses                                           :noexport:
** Dependent Type Clauses                                         :noexport:
*** Non-Finite
*** Semi-Finite
*** Finite