HYPOTHETICAL GRAMMAR

Parts of Speech: There are three types of words in New Ithkuil: formatives, adjuncts, and referentials. Formatives constitute a class of words which generally correspond to both nouns and verbs in natural human languages. Adjuncts are “helper” words which operate in association with formatives to provide further semantic information about the adjoining formative. Referentials are a type of word that operates similarly to pronouns in natural human languages, although we will see that they are more dynamic and expansive in their usage than the usual range of pronouns in other languages.

The grammatical parts of speech known in other languages as nouns and verbs are combined in New Ithkuil into a single part of speech termed the formative. All formatives, without exception, can function as both nouns or verbs, and the distinction as to whether a formative is to be interpreted as a noun or a verb is made by analyzing its morpho-phonological structure and morpho-syntactic relationship to the rest of the sentence. The reason why nouns and verbs can function as morphological derivatives of a single part of speech is because New Ithkuil morpho-semantics do not see nouns and verbs as being cognitively distinct from one another, but rather as complementary manifestations of an idea existing in a common underlying semantic continuum whose components are space and time. As in physics, the holistic continuum containing these two components can be thought of as spacetime. It is in this continuum of spacetime that New Ithkuil instantiates semantic ideas into lexical roots, giving rise to the part of speech termed the formative. The speaker then chooses to either spatially “reify” this formative into an object or entity (i.e., a noun) or to temporally “activize” it into an act, event, or state (i.e., a verb). This complementary process can be diagrammed as follows:

• FORMATIVES
  • NOUNS
  • VERBS
• ADJUNCTS
• REFERENTIALS
  • SUBSTITUTIVE
    • PRONOUNS
      • the universal speaker
      • Considering self directed , first person to be speaker ( gender )
        • animate genders
          • having the ability to speak
          • unable to speak
        • inanimate neuters
          • possessive case ( object + self )
      • 2nd other directed ( gender )
        • addressing the animate gender
        • addressing the inanimate neuter
          • possessive case ( object + you )
      • 3rd others indirect

• Based on two singular third persons
  • A singular third person

CONFIGURATION The category of Configuration consists of the amalgamation of three separate factors: Plexity, Separability, and Similarity.

• Plexity is a three-way distinction as to whether an entity/event/act/state is single or internally unified, is binary or two-halved in nature, or has three or more components/pieces/parts/members. These three states of Plexity are termed UNIPLEX, DUPLEX, and MULTIPLEX (abbreviated as U, D, and M) .
• Separability is a three-way distinction as to whether a group of entities when considered as a whole have individual members which are physically separate from each other, connected to each other in some way (whether physically or abstractly or metaphorically), or fused together (whether physically or abstractly or metaphorically). These three states of Separability are termed SEPARATE, CONNECTED, and FUSED (abbreviated as S, C, and F as the second letter following the Plexity abbreviation letter). Note that Separability does not apply to UNIPLEX entities/events/acts/states.
• Similarity is a three-way distinction as to whether a group of entities considered as a whole have individual members which are physically similar to each other, physically dissimilar to each other, or which together constitute a “fuzzy” category in terms of similarity (where the degree of similarity between individual members is subjective, unascertainable, irrelevant or not easily definable). These three states of Similarity are termed Similar, Dissimilar, and Fuzzy (abbreviated S, D, and F as the third letter following the Plexity and Separability abbreviation letters). Note that Similarity does not apply to UNIPLEX entities/events/acts/states.

AFFLIATION While the category of Configuration from the preceding section distinguishes the relationships between the individual members of a set in terms of physical similarities, physical connections, and number of component-entities, the category of Affiliation operates to distinguish the member relationships in terms of subjective purpose, function, or benefit. Affiliation operates synergistically in conjunction with Configuration to describe the total contextual relationship between the members of a set. Like Configuration, the meanings of nouns or verbs in the various affiliations often involve lexical changes when translated into English.

There are four affiliations: CONSOLIDATIVE, ASSOCIATIVE, VARIATIVE, and COALESCENT.

CONSOLIDATIVE : This affiliation indicates that the individual members of a configurational set are a naturally occurring set where the function, state, purpose or benefit of individual members is inapplicable, irrelevant, or if applicable, is shared.

• a man, a door, a sensation of heat, a leaf.

ASSOCIATIVE affiliation indicates that the individual members of a configurational set share the same subjective function, state, purpose or benefit.

PERSPECTIVE

* The Monadic
* The Agglomerative
* The Nomic
* The Abstract