Meftla Syntax

This article relates to the syntax of the Meftla language.

Basic Word order

The most basic word order is verb-subject-object (VSO). However, topicalization can move either an object or the subject before the verb. A topic can also be any of the other arguments, or even an argument unrelated to the verb.

The language is strongly head-initial, with nouns being followed by adjectives, relative clauses or adverbial clauses, adjectives by adverbs, prepositions by their objects, verbs by their objects.

Case, Gender and Number

Various distinctions may be found in nouns and agreeing adjectives, some adverbs, and verbs: cases, genders, numbers, aspects and moods. This section shows how the first three are used —aspect and moods are dealt with below.

Case

Nominative Case

• Subjects
• Subject topics
• Adpositions
• Vocatives
• Cited words

Accusative Case

• Direct objects
• Direct object topics
• Objects of some prepositions
• Time period adverbs and adverbials

Oblique Case

• Indirect objects
• Possessors in possessive constructions
• Nouns modifying nouns
• Topics of any of the above
• Objects of some prepositions
• Time point adverbs and adverbials

Gender

There are two genders: masculine and feminine. Adjectives agree in gender with their nouns, and verbs agree in gender with their subjects.

Gender is not completely natural:all common and abstract nouns get an assigned gender depending mostly on their final phoneme. Humans get their natural gender assigned, though animals vary depending if they're pets or if it's especially relevant to the context (many animals have certain genders already assigned, such as eagles which are generally treated as if they were males).

If the natural gender isn't known in a context where it's necessary, adjectives take their feminine forms. Mixed groups also take the feminine plural or supraplural.

Number

How many number distinctions there are varies with the part-of-speech: nouns and adjectives distinguish three: singular, plural and supraplural; while pronouns distinguish only two: singular and plural. There's also an adverb that inflects for number: dɛil (pl.), dɛliɛ̄s (spl.) 'all'.

The singular is used for individualized, countable nouns. The plural is used for groups of these individualized nouns or for mass nouns. The supraplural is used when there's some focus on the great number of individualized nouns or the great amount of a mass noun, expressing a notion such as "a huge number of" or simply "many". Pronouns use their plural with supraplural antecedents too.

Adposition and possession

Both adpositions and possessive construction put two (or more) nouns next to each other, with the following ones modifying the first.

Adpositions give a title, an explanation, or a nickname to the preceding noun, and are always in the nominative case regardless of what case this noun they modify is in.

Possessors instead are always in the oblique.

This possessive construction is also used for many other sorts of noun modification such as the content of containers, the measured noun of a measure, and certain descriptions as of purpose, material and others often expressed in English as noun+noun compounds or with the preposition of.

The Definite Clitic

The definite infixing clitic -un- is inserted right before the inflectional ending of a noun: fugi 'rain' (nom.), fuguni 'the rain' (nom.); kardir 'a book' (acc.), kardunir 'the book' (acc.).

The main argument for considering it a clitic and not an inflection or an extremely productive derivational suffix is that it doesn't really have allomorphs (besides the -u- being a part of diphthong or not, best considered as part of the regular morphophonology of affixes beginning with /i/ and /u/), and that if it were a derivational suffix it'd be the only that never changes the noun's declension.

Personal Independent Pronouns

The personal independent pronouns come in two cases: nominative and accusative-oblique.

The nominative pronouns are used when a subject is not explicitly mentioned, and may or may not be stressed. If a verb doesn't have an explicit subject, it's interpreted as passive (see more below).

The accusative-oblique pronouns exist to be the objects of prepositions, and to stress direct or indirect objects already marked in the verb.

Pakbelɛis ʃiɔi rāgi ʒulnief lī niɔ​kir​?

from=all guys went.to.bed why you with=him?

Out of all guys, why did you sleep with him?

Adjectives

Adjectives generally follow their pronoun:

Rūiɔ māna

woman tall

'A tall woman.

They can go before the noun too, though they gain a certain nuance of pomposity:

Iaualaŋnɛ ūɲɛ!

magnificient house!

'A magnificient house!'

Relative clauses

Relative pronouns always start relative clauses (there are not instances they can be dropped such as in English the man [that] I saw) with relative pronouns.

These pronouns agree with their antecedent in case, number and gender; unlike English who~whom~whose, which decline according to what the noun would be inside the clause.

Sīɔn kī ʃiɔunir miref ʃasʃasi ʔɛ̄ kɔkardir.

be he the.guy that burned I his=book

He's the guy whose book I burned. (Lit., 'that I burned his book'.)

If a noun has a function other than the subject, the antecedent is repeated inside the relative clause with an anaphoric pronoun.

Ranun miref gianɛka ʔɔ̄ haidan.

the.man that saw.him I yesterday

The man I saw [him] yesterday.

Ranun miref gianɔhi haidan.

the.man that saw.me yesterday

The man that saw me yesterday.

Sīɔn ʔɔ̄ tarārunar mirefa gianɛki haidan.

be I the.policewoman that saw.him yesterday

I'm the policewoman that saw him yesterday.

Sīɔn ʔɔ̄ tarārunar mirefa gianɔhi kī haidan.

be I the.policewoman that saw.me he yesterday

I'm the policewoman that he saw [me] yesterday.

Questions

There's three type of questions: yes/no questions, asking about the truth of a statement to which a "yes" or a "no" answer can be expected; content questions such as what, how, when, etc.; and echo questions, when asking the other person to repeat something last said using that same sentence or part of it.

Complement clauses with a yes/no question or a content question inside (indirect questions) force all verbs to distinguish only two aspects: the imperfective (for ongoing and completed actions in the present or up to the present or in the future, as well as current or future general truths, habits and actions being started) and the perfective (for actions in the past).

We could analyze this as the imperfective and the perfective still behaving like non-past and past tenses respectively (as a holdover from Proto-Melha).

Yes/No questions

Yes/No questions are built by simply putting tāl after the verb.

Hikalamɔk sīɛn tāl odɔnɛr kakl?

this=article is yes/no long enough?

'Is this article long enough?'

This also goes for indirect yes/no questions, where the subordinate the verb is followed by tāl.

Mɔnɛn ʔɔ̄ melai tāl hikalamɔk sīɛn odɔnɛr kakl.

want I know yes/no this=article is long enough

'I want to know if the article is long enough.' (Also: '...if [it] will be enough', '...if [it]'s getting (starting to be) long enough'.)

Content questions

The question correlative pronouns are used here.

Person and Thing question pronouns are always topicalized to the beginning of the question.

Refir siakali lī!?

mhom killed you!?

'Who did you kill!?'

All other kinds of questions are normally used after the verb.

Siakalɛki ʒulnief lī?

killed.him why you?

'Why did you kill him?'

Mɔnɛnzɛ ʔɔ̄ melai siakalɛki lī gaɔnef.

am.wanting=not I know kill.him you when

'I don't want to know when you killed him.' (Also: '...when you had killed him'.)

Echo questions

Echo questions are always done in-situ. Although the same question pronouns as above can be used, it's also common to suffix them with the definite clitic -un- too.

Xad kī sefunir​?

had.done he the.what?

He had done what?

Verbs: Aspects and Moods

Verbs in Meftla generally distinguish six aspects and two moods. In general terms:

• The perfective is used for completed actions from the point of view of the present or the future.

• For actions completed from the point of view of another past action, the pluperfect is used.

• The experiential is similar to the perfective, except that the fact that such experience has been attained before is what's being primarily communicated. Somebody bragging would use most of their verbs in the experiential.

• The inchoative is used for actions beginning to happen.

• The imperfective is used for ongoing actions without a clear end (because the speaker doesn't or didn't know, or it's simply irrelevant), and for future actions in general.

• The habitual is used for general truths or things currently being done as a sort of habit, interrupted by continuing after certain pauses.

Five Imperatives

The difference between the imperatives may be especially tricky to acquire, especially between the inchoative and the perfective imperatives. The former puts more emphasis on starting and the latter on finishing. As an example, when hassling a procrastinator, you would use the inchoative imperative to tell them to just start doing their much procrastinated obligations, while you would use the perfective imperative to tell them to both start it and get the hell done with it already.

The imperfective imperative is used to tell somebody to stay doing something.

The pluperfect imperative is used when telling somebody to have completed something by a certain deadline in the future.

The habitual imperative is used to tell somebody to acquire a certain habit. Very common when advising others.

Ŋabīs lɛkiunɛr kas ŋabɛlis lɛ̄.

Ŋab-īs lɛ=kiunɛr kas ŋab-ɛl-is lɛ̄.

love-HAB.IMPER your=neighbour as love-you-HAB you

'Love your neighbour as you love yourself.' (Mark 28:31)

(Using masculine forms because Jesus was speaking to a male scribe, about male neighbours. It should be pointed out that as the feminine gender is the least marked in Meftla, general advice idioms like this generally make use feminine habitual imperatives instead.)

Static Verbs

A few verbs, belonging to a group called "the static verbs", distinguish only four aspects, however. The habitual is replaced by the imperfective, and the experiential is replaced by the perfective. These include gianai 'to see', rauai 'to hear', ŋahŋahai 'to smell'; allibai 'to like', mɔnai 'to want', rūŋnai 'to want ~ to wish', sesenai 'to need'; rɔntlɔai 'to die', gigiɲai 'to be born', and by analogy, other verbs derived from them.

Verbs: Infixing Clitics

Three types of verbal infixing clitics exist: direct object pronouns, indirect object pronouns, and an "echo" clitic used when the verb rules certain adverb clauses.

Echo clitic

This clitic is used for main verbs with:

• An adverbial clause of "after", "as soon as", "once", "when", or in a context where time has passed (even if it's a clause independent from the verb).
• An adverbial clause of reason: "because", "since".
• Conditions: "if", "even if", "unless".
• A concessive adverbial clause: "(al)though", "in spite of", "even though".

Pulidad kɔkɔnɔr salbɔr. Biagɔdɛd ʒai sɛtuni.

had.passed years three || hadn't.changed.ECHO still the.things

Three years had passed. Things still hadn't changed.

Hānɔda ɛalnɛ nāi lunna melɔn nāi tezdɛn ɛalnɛ.

got.up.ECHO late they because are.knowing they the.others are.coming late.

They got up late because they knew the others would come late.

Lɔŋka xīsɔhɔda lī ramɔn ʔɔ̄ sɛtsɛ ganikɔ̄.

unless tell.me.ECHO you can't I do nothing about it

Unless you tell me, I can't do anything about it.

Daŋkɛ hullunɛ baɔlami kī sīɛnɔdɛn zɛ huanir.

in.spite.of the.number practised he wasn't.ECHO he ready

In spite of how much he practised, he wasn't ready.

Complement Subordination

Complement clauses are those that express an object of a verb with a clause. Such clauses in Meftla have no explicit subordinator: if the clause is the direct object it's introduced right after, if the clause is an indirect then it follows that preposition.

Gianɔn ʔɔ̄ ʃaxa lī sanɛiti zuiɛis.

am.seeing I bought you clothes new

I see you bought new clothes.

Ʒōbina ʔɔ̄ pakʃaxa lī sanɛiti zuiɛis.

thought I from=had.bought you clothes new

I thought you had bought you new clothes.

Passives

To express passivization, verbs drop the subject argument(s) without changing the cases of the other arguments.

This is to say the old direct object stays where it is, it doesn't become the subject of the passive sentence. This also has the consequence that agents simply can't be reintroduced into a passive sentence.

Then, in contrast with reflexives and reciprocals, these verbs undergo gender polarity. They agree with their objects, but using the reverse gender.

Pānɛ ʃasʃasi ʔɛkardir.		Ɂɛkardir ʃasʃasa.
brother-NOM burned my=book-ACC	>	my=book.[M]-ACC burned.F
My brother burned my book.		My book was burned.

(Note how the passive verb ʃasʃasa has feminine gender, even though kard is a masculine noun.)

The gender polarity also goes for plurals, where verbs agreeing with mixed plurals now take masculine forms.

Dʒīlɛi udʒīlai panri.

the.boys and=the.girls scolded.M

The boys and the girls were scolded.

If a verb has both a direct and an indirect object, the direct object takes priority for the gender agreement.

Gāti raunda belɛs dʒīlas.

gave.M gift.[F] to.each/every child

'A gift was given to each/every child.'

Conditions

Ɔs conditions

Conditions formed with the particle ɔs are mostly realis. Realis conditions pose the question on the veracity of a statement about reality that may be happening now, or that may have happened in the past, but the speaker doesn't know.

'If your mom really made this delicious food (I don't know if she did), I have to congratulate her.'

'If my brother is baking something right now (I don't know if he is), I'll help him.'

The "vivid future" condition: Meftla has two ways of rendering future conditions such as "if he does it tomorrow, I'll thank him". If ɔs and the imperfect are used, the speaker express more certainty that the condition will hold true than the opposite.

(Naturally, a speaker isn't always certain about a condition when using ɔs. Vivid future conditions aren't necessarily realis.)

'If you bring me the new carpet, I'll keep it the best I can.'

Note that because of the similar use of the perfective aspect to the English future perfect, and this vivid future kind of condition, the first example in this section could also be understood as: 'if your mom makes this delicious food (by some deadline in the future), I'll have to congratulate her'. Such nuances are entirely left to context.

Irrealis conditions

Irrealis conditions are those that place conditions that certainly did not occur in the past or are not occurring right now (perhaps they haven't occured yet). They're introduced by kiu.

If they found us out, we'd be in trouble.

We wouldn't be here if you had listened to me!

The future less vivid condition formed with kiu and the imperfective expresses a condition that the speaker has strong doubts will ever take place.

'If she could only, ever, get to understand...'

What if...?

There's a specific idiom to render English what if...: karefsef..., lit. 'how what...'.

how what created Keanu Reeves this meme in.order.to=become he celebrity Internet again?

'What if Keanu Reeves created this meme to become an Internet celebrity again?'

If only...

'If the troops had only seen what awaited them.'

When and Whenever

It can be argued that clauses with 'when' in the future, or any clause with 'whenever' constitute some sort of conditions, and thus are treated here.

When and whenever conditions aren't marked as realis or irrealis, vivid or less vivid.

'When the police comes, I'll hide in the secret room.

'I always noticed whenever he took a little bread.'

= Comparison

Here four types of comparisons are distinguished: comparisons of adjectives (you're more patient than me), comparisons of adverbs (you arrived earlier than them), comparisons of verb action quantity (you procrastinate more than them —i.e. your procrastinating is greater in amount than their procrastinating), and comparisons of noun quantity (she has more books than us).

Across these three types, there's three levels of gradations: inferiority (procrastinate less than them), equality (as early as them, procrastinate as much as them), and superiority (as in the examples in the last paragraph).

Inferiority is marked as the negative of superiority or with vocabulary (antonyms).

On top of all of this, it also matters whether the comparand (than who?) is expressed or not. If it's not, the adverb nɔi 'a little' modifies something.

Comparisons of Adjectives

Sīɛn kī dzauɔiɛr nɔi.

be he tall a.little

'He's taller'. ~ 'He's a little tall'.

Sīɛn lɛ̄ osōtɔiɛ ʔɔr.

be you more.patient than me

'You're more patient than me.' ~ 'I'm not as patient as you.'

Handulirā sīɔn gātʃa kas.

linguistics be interesting as

'Linguistics is just as interesting.'

Pānɛ sīɛn gātʃa kas lɛpānɛs.

be brother interesting as your=brother

'My brother is as interesting as yours.'

Superlatives

Roafrai sīɔn taɲʒaudɔr.

these=flowers be-IMPF prettiest

'These flowers are the prettiest.'

Comparisons of Adverbs

Aɲtʃa lī ɛalnɛ nɔi.

arrived you late a.little

'You arrived later.'

Aɲtʃa lī ɛalnɛ nāi.

arrived you early them

'You arrived earlier than them.'

ʔarlis kī dīn kas.

cooks he fast as

'He cooks just as fast.'

Tomāuɛi fūgi axu dīn kassinnīɔs.

those=cats ran almost fast as the.mice

'Those cats ran almost as fast as the mice.'

Superlatives

Aɲtʃa lī ɛalaudnɛ.

arrived you earliest

'You arrived the earliest.'

Ūɲɛ sīs garanaudnɛ pakdiastɔs.

my=house is nearest to.the.store

'My house is the nearest to the store.'

Comparisons of Verb Action Quantity

are.stinking these=socks less

'These socks stink less.'

procrastinate you more them

'You procrastinate more than them.'

wrote I as.much.as

'I wrote just as much.'

brother played as.much.as could he

'My brother played as much as he could.'

Superlatives

these=plants grew least

'These plants grew the least.'

that=star shines most

'That star shines the most.'

Comparisons of Noun Quantity

failed he classes less

'He failed less classes.'

even_though took he subjects more anybody ever

'Even though he took more subjects than anybody ever.'

the.glass is scratches as.many.as

'The glass has just as many scratches.'

my=phone is pictures as.many.as your=phone

'My phone has as many pictures as yours.'

Superlatives

won she least contests

'She won the least contests: 39.'

Valency Changes

The valency of a verb is the number of arguments (subjects, objects) it governs. Valency in Meftla changes mostly by simply dropping the arguments.

Zero-subject (Passives and Impersonals)

As explained above, passives are formed by dropping the subject and reversing the gender marked in the verb. Not reversing the gender would create a reflexive or reciprocal construction.

Zero-objects (Detransitives)

To make a transitive or ditransitive verb intransitive, the objects are dropped leaving the subject the same.

Dʒīluna ŋahŋaha afrunɔr.		Dʒīluna ŋahŋaha.
the.girl smelled the.flowers	>	the.girl smelled
'The girl smelled the flowers.'		'The girl smelled something.'

Note that Meftla has no ergative verbs such as English to smell or to bake (he bakes the cake > the cake bakes).

Zero-arguments (Impersonal Actions)

If both the subjects and the objects are dropped, verbs express nothing but the occurrence of the action.

Rɔntlɔa andāua.

killed too.much

'Too much killing happened/occurred/took place.'