Arpien

My first new conlang in 48 years!

No phonology yet, so of course no vocabulary yet.

It has 22 "open" word-classes and 80 "closed" word-classes.

The words "open" and "closed" are in quotes, because the real difference is that wherever an "open" word-class can be used, certain phrases can also be used there and be equally grammatical; but where a word from a "closed" class can be used, only another word from the same class can be substituted for it and still have a grammatical utterance.

It's completely isolating, and so it has no "morphology".

Its syntax can be written in Chomsky normal form.

It is entirely head-final.

Every phrase consists of two parts; the complement and the head.

The head determines both the word-class that the complement has to come from, and the word-class that the entire phrase can be substituted for.

OTOH if you know both the word-class of the complement and the word-class whose distribution the entire phrase's distribution matches, then you know the word-class the head must be from.

It is neither right-branching nor left-branching, since, when the head happens to come from one of the 22 "open" word-classes, it could be phrasal, even if the complement isn't phrasal. OTOH the head might be a single word (and, if it comes from one of the 80 "closed" classes, actually [u][i]must[/i][/u] be a single word), but the complement might be a phrase. In either case the head would still have to come after the complement.

I will publish a list of the word-classes, and the CFG grammar, when I get around to it, which I hope will be soon (but who knows?).

The purpose of this conlang is just to see whether or not I can actually make a conlang according to this formalism.

The capital letters are nonterminal symbols; they can be replaced by another non-terminal or by a string of non-terminals. The lowercase letters and numerics are "quasiterminal" or "metaterminal" symbols; they can be replaced by single words of the appropriate class, which are the terminal symbols. The lowercase letters represent "open" word-classes, and the numerics represent "closed" word-classes.

"A" represents sentences and/or clauses. "B" represents nouns and noun-phrases and phrases which can be used as if they were nouns.

A --> a  |  A C   |  B D   |  C G   |  D H   |  E I   |  F J   |  G 17 | H 18 | I 19 | J 20 | K 21 | L 22 | M 23 | N 24 | O 25 | P 26 | Q 27 | R 28 | S 29 | T 30 | U 31 | V 32

B --> b  |  A E   |  B F   |  C K   |  D L   |  E M   |  F N   |  G 33 | H 34 | I 35 | J 36 | K 37 | L 38 | M 39 | N 40 | O 41 | P 42 | Q 43 | R 44 | S 45 | T 46 | U 47 | V 48

C --> c  |  A O   |  B P   |  C 1 | D 2 | E 3 | F 4

D --> d  |  A Q   |  B R   |  C 5 | D 6 | E 7 | F 8

E --> e  |  A S   |  B T   |  C 9 | D 10 | E 11 | F 12

F --> f  |  A U   |  B V   |  C 13 | D 14 | E 15 | F 16

G --> g  |  A 49 | B 50

H --> h  |  A 51 | B 52

I --> i  |  A 53 | B 54

J --> j  |  A 55 | B 56

K --> k  |  A 57 | B 58

L --> l  |  A 59 | B 60

M --> m  |  A 61 | B 62

N --> n  |  A 63 | B 64

O --> o  |  A 65 | B 66

P --> p  |  A 67 | B 68

Q --> q  |  A 69 | B 70

R --> r  |  A 71 | B 72

S --> s  |  A 73 | B 74

T --> t  |  A 75 | B 76

U --> u  |  A 77 | B 78

V --> v  |  A 79 | B 80

I haven't decided on the exact correspondence between the usual terms for word-classes and the terms I'll use when talking about Arpien. But here's my first, partial, approximation.

A Sentence or Clause

B Noun or Noun Phrase

C Auxiliary or Sentential Adverb

D Monovalent Verb or Verb Phrase (including most intransitive verbs)

E Complementizer or Phrasal Complementizer

F Adjective or Adjective Phrase

G Makes a Clause out of an Auxiliary or Sentential Adverb

H Makes a Clause out of a Monovalent Verb

I Makes a Clause out of a Complementizer

J Makes a Clause out of an Adjective

K Makes a Nominal Phrase out of an Auxiliary or Sentential Adverb

L Infinitivizer; Makes a Noun out of a Monovalent Verb

M Makes a Noun out of a Complementizer

N Makes a Noun out of an Adjective

O Conjunction for Clauses, or, Subordinator for Adjunct Clauses (resulting phrase modifies a sentence or clause)

P Bivalent Verb Taking a Noun and a Complement Clause; or Postposition (resulting phrase acts as an auxiliary or as a sentential adverb)

Q Subordinator for Adjunct Clauses (resulting phrase modifies a monovalent verb or verb phrase)

R Bivalent Verb or Verb Phrase (including most monotransitive verbs)

S Makes a clause into a complementizer

T Postposition Resulting in Phrasal Complementizer

U Relativizer

V Postposition Resulting in Phrasal Adjective; e,g, Genitive Postposition; or, Conjunction for Nouns

1 Adverb that Modifies an Auxiliary or Sentential Adverb

2 Makes an Auxiliary or Sentential Adverb out of a Monovalent Verb

3 Makes an Auxiliary or Sentential Adverb out of a Complementizer

4 Makes a Complementizer out of an Adjective

5 Makes a Subordinator out of an Auxiliary or Sentential Adverb

6 Adverb that Modifies a Monovalent Verb

7 Makes a Monovalent Verb out of a Complementizer

8 Makes a Monovalent Verb out of an Adjective

9 Makes a Complementizer out of an Auxiliary or Sentential Adverb

10 Makes a Complementizer out of a Monovalent Verb

11 Adverb that Modifies a Complementizer

12 Makes a Complementizer out of an Adjective

13 Makes a Phrasal Adjective out of an Auxiliary or Sentential Adverb

14 Participlizer; Makes an Adjective of a Monovalent Verb

15 Makes an Adjective out of a Complementizer

16 Adverb that Modifies an Adjective

67 Trivalent Verb Requiring a Noun and Two Complement Clauses

68 Trivalent Verb Requiring Two Nouns and a Complement Clause

69 Trivalent Verb Requiring a Noun and Two Complement Clauses

70 Trivalent Verb Requiring Two Nouns and a Complement Clause

71 Trivalent Verb Requiring Two Nouns and a Complement Clause

72 Trivalent Verb (Including Most Ditransitive Verbs)