Ælis/Topicalisation

Ælis has no word classes, fixed word order, or word dividers. Since these aspects are important structural elements of language, Ælis has other methods of achieving the same consistency. One of these methods is topicalisation, also called topic marking or in this case function marking. What this means is that each word in a sentence is preceded by a root word which denotes the word's semantical function in the sentence.

As opposed to the 'traditional' grammatical functions of subject, verb and object, it is noteworthy that none of Ælis' semantic functions must be obligatorily present in a sentence for it to be grammatically correct. Furthermore, none of the functions is restricted to one use per sentence.

There are 8 functions in Ælis, divided into three categories.

Primary functions
Primary functions divide sentences into the equivalent of constituents (noun phrase, verb phrase, adverbial phrase, etc.). Since Ælis doesn't use spaces, the primary functions serve as a means of delineating different words within a sentence. There are 4 primary functions.

Topic

 * → Corresponding morpheme: hA [ha].

The topic describes an action or state. In full sentences, it will often be translated with a verb, though the topic itself has no form of conjugation, tense or mood. The topic is always essive, which means that it should be interpreted as a noun phrase that starts with 'there is', 'there are'.

E.g.: hA dOE [ ha doe]
 * (TOPfire)
 * => to burn / there is (a) fire.

Patient

 * → Corresponding morpheme: iA [ia].

The patient is the syntactical object that is affected by the topic. It has no active participation in the process expressed by the topic. It will generally translate to an (in)direct object or prepositional object whenever the topic expresses an action, or the subject if the topic describes a (passive) state.

E.g.: iA aNoWsIhAdOE [ ia 'anoæsi hadoe]
 * (PAThouse TOPfire)
 * => the house burns / the house is on fire.

Agent

 * → Corresponding morpheme: lA [la].

The agent is the syntactical object that initiates the topic. The appearance of an agent can turn a sentence into a (transitive) action.

E.g.: lA 1mAiAaNoWsIhAdOE [ la æma ia'anoæsi hadoe]
 * (AGme PAThouse TOPfire)
 * => I set fire to the house.

Modifier

 * → Corresponding morpheme: iR [ir].

A modifier adds information to a sentence which cannot be covered by one of the previous functions. Generally, the modifier corresponds to a variety of adverbial constituents: time, place, manner, cause, etc. Modifiers also harbour the key to expressing time tenses.

E.g.: iR aSdAlElA1mAiAaNoWsIhAdOE [ ir asdale laæma ia'anoæsi hadoe]
 * (MODfuture AGme PAThouse TOPfire)
 * => I will set fire to the house.

Subordinate functions
Subordinate functions are functions that can only appear in combination with one of the primary functions. Thus, they are strongly tied to one specific argument of the sentence. There are 2 subordinate functions.

Characteristic

 * → Corresponding morpheme: eM [em].

A characteristic gives you additional information of a specific syntactical argument. The information is always considered to be either inherent to the respective argument, or of predictable nature. It will mostly translate to an adjectival description of age, size, shape, colour, etc.

E.g.: iRaSdAlElA1mAiAaNoWsI iAeM vErAhAdOE [irasdale laæma ia'anoæsi iaem vera hadoe]
 * (MODfuture AGme PAThouse PAT-CHARpreciousness TOPfire)
 * => I will set fire to the precious house.

Referent

 * → Corresponding morpheme: vW [væ].

The referent is a syntactical element that places an argument in a semantical relation to something else. The referent may therefore correspond to the use of a comparative or superlative structure (e.g.: I am bigger than you), to a relative indication in time or space (e.g.: in front of me), but also simply to a possessive pronoun. The referent can be analytically translated as a relative clause that starts with "when compared to...": when compared to you, I am big / when compared to me, in the front.

E.g.: iRaSdAlElA1mAiAaNoWsIiAeMvErA iAvW 2mAhAdOE [irasdale laæma ia'anoæsi iaemvera iavæ ema hadoe]
 * (MODfuture AGme PAThouse PAT-CHARpreciousness PAT-REFyou TOPfire)
 * => I will set fire to that precious house of yours.

Free functions
The free functions are functions that do not take part in the hieratic relationship that the primary and subordinate functions have to each other. There are 2 free functions.

Sentence bracket

 * → Corresponding morpheme: lW [læ] + iW [iæ].

The sentence bracket is a set of two morphemes that allow subordinate clauses to be constructed within the main clause. The opening bracket 'læ' is comparable to the relative pronouns 'that' and 'which', and the closing bracket 'iæ' is used to mark the end of the subclause. The entire sentence bracket will be subordinate to the root word to which it is suffixed, and will probably in turn feature primary and subordinate functions itself.

E.g.: iRaSdAlElA1mAiAaNoWsIiAeMvErAiAvW2mAiAem lW lA2mAhAeLeAnArA iW hAdOE  [irasdale laæma ia'anoæsi iaemvera iavæ'ema iaem læ la'ema haeleanara iæ hadoe]

In this sentence, the subordinate clause translates to you love. The bracket links to a characteristic, which in turn is linked to the patient of the main clause (the house). Hence the formulation iAeMlW [ia-em-læ].


 * (MODfuture AGme PAThouse PAT-CHARpreciousness PAT-CHAR- BRACKET.OPEN(AGyou TOPmuch-love BRACKET.CLOSE) TOPfire)
 * ==> I will set fire to the precious house of yours that you care for so deeply.

Sentence breaker

 * → Corresponding morpheme: tA [ta].

The sentence breaker is a morpheme placed in between two sentences or phrases to separate them from one another. Without the sentence breaker, arguments with the same function are considered to be enumerations. E.g.:

lA1mAhAeNlAksEMKhAeR  [laæma haen laSem haer] (AG me TOPvision AGSam TOPhearing)
 * => Sam and I are looking and listening.

lA1mAhAeN tA lAksEMKhAeR  [laæma haen  ta laSem haer] (AG me TOPvision (sent.br.) AGSam TOPhearing)
 * => I am looking and Sam is listening.

Conciseness
Since this function marking construction pattern tends to create very large sentences, discourse aims to be as concise as possible. As long as the conversation covers the same subject, a lot of words can be omitted without losing information. An example:
 * Person A: iRaSdAiOlA1mAiAaNoWsIiAvW2tE
 * (MODpast AGme PAThouse PAT-REFyou)
 * ==> "I did something to your house."
 * Person B: hAnE
 * (TOPquestion)
 * ==> "What (did you do to it)?"
 * Person A: hAdOE
 * (TOPfire)
 * ==> "I set fire to it."

Note that the last reply ([hadoe]) is the exact same formulation as the first example sentence which meant "There is a fire". Only now, the implied meaning is completely altered by the context.

There are some cases where the function markers themselves can be omitted completely. This is the case with common and short formulations such as thanks or you're welcome, as such utterances are generally unambiguous. For example: while the sentence hAgIrAlA1tEiA2tE [hagira laæte iaete] (for you there is total gratitude on my behalf) would be the formal way of thanking someone, colloquial speech will generally abbreviate this to simply gIlE [gile] (a lot of gratitude) or gIrA [gira] (total gratitude). Similar expressions without function markers include:
 * hInArA [hinara] or nArA [nara] (Hello/Goodbye)
 * nWnE [næne] (What's up?)
 * dIrA [dira] (You're welcome)
 * iSnE [isne] (What's next?)
 * rEAnE [reane] (What's (your) name?)
 * kmERIK [rea'meri] ((My name is) Mary)