Dal'qörian preposition word order
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In Dalcurian, a prepositional object, be it a pronoun, real noun or a non tangible noun (like a thought, feeling or expression), 'always immediately follows' a nominative pronoun or noun in the subject position (except when the pronoun or noun is followed by a modal or auxiliary verb, in which case it follows the modal or auxiliary). Dalcurian ears are very sensitive to this syntactic rule and is always (somewhat reluctantly) corrected:
- Ména, máriÞ érenöra, görøria. We're going out with them. lit: We, with them, are going out.
- Diö nöacr, qiöcra séÞa, icaÞr ela. You can take everything except for these. lit: You can, except for these, take all.
However, when a sentence or clause has more than one prepositional word/phrase (pph for short), there is a 'general' word order according to whether the phrase contains:
Adverbs of time-these go first.
Pronouns, people names-these go second.
Nouns, thoughts, ideas-these go third
Places, areas, direction-these go last.
Example 1:
- Lintöni 18S, binä nébaræ, máriÞ Garé ön Séan, eÞöaquálö. I’ll be out until 6pm with Gary and Sean. lit: Until 6 pm, I will be, with Gary and Sean, somewhere.
Although the pph until 6 is not technically an adverb of time, it goes first in word order because it 'denotes' time; the pph with Gary and Sean goes second in word order because it contains real names.
Example 2:
- Lintöni 18S, binä nébaræ, máriÞ Garé ön Séan, andri animatáj. I’ll be at the cinema with Gary and Sean until 6pm.
This sentence contains three prepositional phrases: until 6 (time), with Gary and Sean (real names), and at the cinema (place).
In the sentence:
In sentences consisting of more than one clause, be it a subordinate or coordinate clause, word order resumes for each separate clause:
- Diö nöacr, näø 18S, raför binöra, yil,, qösra binä nébaræ, lintöni nes, máriÞ Gary ön Sean, eÞöaquálö. lit: Can you, after 6pm, call me, because I’ll be, until then, with Gary and Séan.
Note 1: The above rule, as said, is more of a general rule, not a syntactically strict. It's similar the the Time, Manner, Place rule in German.
NOTE 2: Due to prepositional word order, it's not possible in Dalcurian to end a sentence with a preposition, unlike English. For example:
- That's the house I live in.
In Dalcurian, this would be:
- TaÞ di abödä,, vömä binä habitr. That's the house where I live.
- Binä, am taÞ abödä, habitr. I live in that house.