Voksigid syntax

The syntax of Voksigid is summarized below.

1. The parts of speech are predicates (verbs), tags (prepositions), and other particles. (the terms "predicate" and "verb" will be used interchangeably, as also "tag" and "preposition." The term "other particle" will include conjunctions, modal/aspectual particles, ending markers, and such others as become necessary to define the syntax. All content words will be understood as verbs. Those which represent primarily constructs that English uses nouns or adjectives for will officially mean "to be X." Predicates can be used as nouns or adjectives by the use of nominalizers as described in the morphology document.
2. All sentences begin with a verb, possibly preceded by aspectual or modal particles. All other elements of the predication are expressed by the use of prepositional phrases. These include the elements that would in English be expressed by subject and direct and indirect object, as well as adverbial phrases. No distinction is made between these phrases, and if more than one phrase is used, they may be placed in any order, depending on the speaker/ writer's desire to emphasize one or another.
3. Clauses consist of a conjunction followed by the elements that compose a sentence according to the previous paragraph. No distinction between coordinate and subordinate clauses will be made in structure.
4. The same form defined in 1 as a noun can be used as an adjective by being placed after the noun which it modifies. Thus a nominalized verb which immediately follows a preposition is a noun; one that follows another such is an adjective modifying the noun that precedes it.
5. Neither definite nor indefinite articles will be necessary. Each preposition will delimit a noun phrase, since all prepositional phrases can be analyzed as a preposition, an object-of-preposition noun, and zero or more nouns-used-as- adjectives.
6. Ending markers will comprise end-of-phrase, end-of-clause, and end-of- adjective/adverb markers. The end-of-phrase marker is treated as a right parenthesis with the nearest tag prior to it as the corresponding left parenthesis. It is only necessary if another modifier (nominalized-verb-used- as-adjective, clause, or tag/preposition + noun phrase) follows it. The end-of- clause marker is treated as a right parenthesis with the nearest conjunction prior to it as the corresponding left parenthesis. It is only necessary if another modifier (nominalized-verb-used-as-adjective, clause, or tag/preposition + noun phrase) follows it. The end-of-adjective/adverb marker signifies that the word before it is an unmodified adjective or adverb, and is needed only to indicate that a following modifier is to be attached, not to the adjective/ adverb in question, but to the word it modifies. The end of a sentence terminates all unclosed phrases and clauses.
7. A relative clause is introduced by a special subordinating conjunction (su) and is constructed as in paragraph 3. It is inserted in the sentence after the word it modifies. The place in the relative clause where the relative relates to the clause is filled by the relative pronoun (lau).
8. Another equivalent of a relative clause in other languages is a phrase constructed with a special case tag governing a nominalization of the verb which was the clause main verb. The nominalization indicates which case the restricted phrase is supposed to fit. When necessary (in the rare instances where the restricted phrase is not going to be an argument of the clause verb) or desired for stylistic reasons, nominalize with cen (abstraction) and use lau as a pronoun to represent the restricted phrase, with its proper case tag. This will be designated a quasi-relative phrase.

(Based on the syntax page on the Voksigid site.)