Ælis/Topicalisation

    

    

This page is currently under construction.





Up to here, we have only spoken about the word-level of the language. On the sentence level, word order is completely free for the speaker to choose. In order to allow this, Ælis has a high rate of topicalisation or "function marking". What this means is that words themselves (lexically) indicate role they play in the sentence. This approach is very similar to a languages that use a case system, like Latin or Russian. But there is a difference in a approach. While most languages mark cases through inflection (i.e. modifying a part of a noun or adjective, usually with a suffix), Ælis on the other hand, given the fact that it is a purely analytical language, cannot inflect. Instead, it has a set of root words that have the sole purpose of assigning a specific syntactic role to a word. 



Primary function markers
Perhaps the hardest trick is to adopt the way of thinking that Ælis syntax functions in. Rather than a subject-verb-object oriented syntax, Ælis bases its syntactic behaviour not in a grammatically predefined way, but on the semantics of the words themselves. This makes Ælis an active-stative language, specifically the Fluid-S subtype. Ælis has 4 primary function markers to assign roles, therefore it considers itself to have 4 word types.



The topic
 Topic hA {ha}

The topic is <span style="font-weight:bold;color:hsl(0,100%,40%);">essive, meaning that it describes something that is or exists. Although topics can be eliptically omitted from a sentence, the topic is considered to be the main component of any sentence. It is possible to form sentences that only contain a topic:

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<p style="flex: 0 1 auto;margin:1em;padding:1em;text-align:center;border: solid 1px silver;border-radius:25px;"> hAqOrEmI {haqoremi} There is a cat. <p style="flex: 0 1 auto;margin:1em;padding:1em;text-align:center;border: solid 1px silver;border-radius:25px;"> hAdOE {hadoe} There is a fire / something is burning. <p style="flex: 0 1 auto;margin:1em;padding:1em;text-align:center;border: solid 1px silver;border-radius:25px;"> hAqA3rAtE {haqa'ira'te} There are a lot of people. <p style="flex: 0 1 auto;margin:1em;padding:1em;text-align:center;border: solid 1px silver;border-radius:25px;"> hAaNoW0rAeMtWdW2rAtAeMaQ3rAaS {ha'anoæ'ara'emtædæ'era'ta'emaq'ira'as} There is an old, gray house. <p style="flex: 0 1 auto;margin:1em;padding:1em;text-align:center;border: solid 1px silver;border-radius:25px;"> hAhInA0rA {hahina'ara} An accident happens.

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The patient
<div style="float:right;padding:1em 2em;margin:0em 0em 2em 2em;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0.5);text-align:center;color:hsl(40,100%,40%);border: solid 3px hsl(40,100%,40%);border-radius:25px;"> Patient iA {ia}

The patient is <span style="font-weight:bold;color:hsl(40,100%,40%);">passive, meaning that it describes something that undergoes or is affected. Topic-patient combinations usually express a passive state, or a situation. The topic is then the thing that occurs, the patient is the argument to whom/what it occurs.

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<p style="flex: 0 1 auto;margin:1em;padding:1em;text-align:center;border: solid 1px silver;border-radius:25px;"> <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,40%);">hArEkdZZEFK <span style="color:hsl(40,100%,40%);">iA1mA  {<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,40%);">hare'dzzef <span style="color:hsl(40,100%,40%);">ia'æma } <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,40%);">name Jeff occurs <span style="color:hsl(40,100%,40%);">to me  My name is Jeff. <p style="flex: 0 1 auto;margin:1em;padding:1em;text-align:center;border: solid 1px silver;border-radius:25px;"> <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,40%);">hAaQ3rAaN2dA <span style="color:hsl(40,100%,40%);">iA3nI  {<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,40%);">ha'aq'ira'an'eda <span style="color:hsl(40,100%,40%);">ia'ini } <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,40%);">big height occurs <span style="color:hsl(40,100%,40%);">to her  She is tall. <p style="flex: 0 1 auto;margin:1em;padding:1em;text-align:center;border: solid 1px silver;border-radius:25px;"> <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,40%);">hAeLeAnA3rA <span style="color:hsl(40,100%,40%);">iA6tE  {<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,40%);">ha'eleana'ira <span style="color:hsl(40,100%,40%);">ia'u&#815;æte } <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,40%);">good feeling occurs <span style="color:hsl(40,100%,40%);">to us  We are happy / we feel good. <p style="flex: 0 1 auto;margin:1em;padding:1em;text-align:center;border: solid 1px silver;border-radius:25px;"> <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,40%);">hAeN8tE <span style="color:hsl(40,100%,40%);">iA2mA  {<span style="color:hsl(0,100%,40%);">ha'en'u&#815;ite <span style="color:hsl(40,100%,40%);">ia'ema } <span style="color:hsl(0,100%,40%);">vision (of) them occurs <span style="color:hsl(40,100%,40%);">to you(s.)  You see them.

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Free function markers
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The sentence bracket
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The separator
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<p style="text-align:center;font-weight:bold;margin-bottom:1em;">Further reading

Main page Reading and writing Morphology Function marking Root word list and vocabulary