Basic morphology and syntax

Morpheme and word classes

Daemonica morphemes may be divided into the following classes:

• free morphemes
  • nullary (noun-like)
  • unary (adjective-like)
  • binary (verb-like)
• numerals
  • digits
  • numeric constants
  • measure words
• prefixes
  • pseudo-unary (create a nullary word)
  • pseudo-binary (create a unary word)
  • pseudo-ternary (create a binary word)
  • numeric
• suffixes

The valence of a word is determined by its first syllable; that syllable may be a prefix.

	begins with t, d, þ, s, or š	any other onset
Vy nucleus	unary	nullary
plain V nucleus	nullary	unary
any other nucleus	nullary	binary

Each item on the grammatical stack is called a predicate. By definition, a nullary word adds one predicate to the stack, a unary word preserves the size of the stack, and a binary word removes one predicate from the stack. No single word can add or remove more than one item from the stack.

To a first approximation (and for the purpose of writing a lexicon), nullary words are nouns; unary words are adjectives or intransitive verbs; and valence-2 words are transitive verbs. However, this first approximation does not tell the whole story. For example, a single valence-0 word, being a predicate all by itself, can be a complete sentence. Words of higher valence cannot, because they depend on something else being on the stack.

• Tatorhu.
• bear
• There was a bear.

• Sba-vābur.
• NMLZ-chase
• There was a chase.

• *Fabur.
• chase
• ??? chased ???.¹

Adverbs, phatic expressions, and expletives can be translated as unary words.

• Tatorhu kazu!
• bear VOC
• Hey, bear!

• Tatorhu akķu þi fābur.
• bear yesterday D2\1.EXCL chase
• Something, which yesterday was a bear, chased me.

• Tatorhu þi fābur akķu.
• bear D2\1.EXCL chase yesterday
• A bear chased me yesterday.

• Tatorhu þi fābur, paðoybu?
• bear D2\1.EXCL chase yield.turn
• A bear chased me. What’s new with you?

• Tatorhu fa-žkur þi abū, škur!
• bear UNACC-junk D2\1.EXCL chase chaos-APPL
• A damn bear is chasing me!

Binary words, aside from serving the same function as transitive verbs, can also be used to add additional arguments to a predicate, or to conjoin two predicates.

• Þu taterhi gžur.
• 1.EXCL D2\bear give
• I gave something to a bear.

• Þu taterhi düžŋģē bm gžur.
• 1.EXCL D2\bear D3\fish D2\and give
• I gave things to a bear and a fish.

• Þu taterhi gžur dažŋģī kū
• 1SG D2\bear give D2\fish OBL
• I gave a fish to a bear.

We will see further examples of these phenomena later.

Affixes, syllable repetition, and compounds

As mentioned previously, prefix syllables take the first vowel of the paradigm for their word’s stack depth, while suffixes take the last vowel. One consequence of this is that in a word with prefixes, the earliest prefix determines its valence.

tatorhu	bear
bva-tatorhu	is a bear
sba-bva-tatorhu	being a bear
sā-tatorhu	bear den
sā-bva-tatorhu	place where one can be a bear
sā-zba-bva-tatorhu	place associated with the abstraction of being a bear

Repeating the first syllable of a binary word switches its arguments. With words of other valences, it creates an antonym.

• Þu taterhi fā~vōbur.
• 1.EXCL D2\bear PASS~chase
• I was chased by a bear.

• Se þi fābur ta~to:terhi kū.
• 2 D2\1.EXCL chase D2\PASS~bear OBL
• You chased me with bear spray.

Repeating the last syllable creates a diminutive.

• Tator:ho~hu þi fābur.
• bear~DIM D2\1.EXCL chase
• A bear cub chased me.

Note that the extra syllables created by repetition are not, morphologically, affixes: if they were, then “bear spray” would be tatatorhu and “bear cub” would be tatorhuhu.

Close semantic variants of a word may be created by inserting weak syllables, especially between repeated syllables.

• Ta:dn:torhu þi fābur.
• panda D2\1.EXCL chase
• A panda chased me.

• Tatorho:hŋ:hu þi fābur.
• teddy.bear D2\1.EXCL chase
• A teddy bear chased me.

Words may also be conjoined, with appropriate changes to their vowel structure.

• Tatorhu spi fū þi fābur.
• bear D2\ice ERG D2\1.EXCL chase
• A bear from the ice chased me.

• Tatorhozpu þi fābur.
• polar.bear D2\1.EXCL chase
• A polar bear chased me.

Ergativity

Compare the following two sentences:

• Tatorhu þi fābur.
• bear D2\1.EXCL chase
• A bear chased me.

• Tatorhu þayžgu.
• bear white
• A bear is white.

In the case of the binary word fābur, the predicate at the top of the stack is taken as the object of “chase,” but in the case of the unary word þpardū, the predicate at the top of the stack is taken as the subject. This is similar to the pattern in languages with ergative-absolutive alignment, such as Basque, in which the agent of a transitive verb is marked in one way (the ergative case), and the argument of an intransitive verb and patient of an intransitive verb are marked in a common, different way (the absolutive case). Therefore, we will refer to the top of the stack as the “absolutive” position, and the second-from-top as the “ergative” position; or refer to the “ergative” and “absolutive” arguments of a word, especially if affixes have modified its arguments; or, in writing out a definition, use “[A]” and “[E]” as placeholders for its arguments.

Quotation

A quoted phrase, in Daemonica or any other language, is treated as a single predicate, regardless of its morphology. The speaker will use pitch, breathiness, or some other pattern of intonation to distinguish quoted phrases from the rest of the sentence.

• Tatorhu “þu si gģur,” bzū.
• bear 1.EXCL D2\2 eat say
• I’m going to eat you, the bear said.

• ?“Bear” “tatorhu” bzābzū.
• “bear” bear mean
• Bear (in English) means tatorhu (in Daemonica).

• Sba-bzābzū “bear” fū “tatorhu” pur.
• NMLZ-say “bear” ERG bear ABS
• Bear (in English) means tatorhu (in Daemonica).

The third construction above is preferred over the second, because it is more clearly a sentence with two short quotations rather than one longer one. Note that in both these examples, tatorhu appears in its citation form, the form used for a depth-1 stack, even though, if it were unquoted, it would be in its depth-2 taterhi inflection.

1. This kind of formally ungrammatical construction might be used for poetic effect: at the opening of a horror story, for example. ↩