OGTRTA Lexicon

Now that we have covered syntax, let's move on to the other half of OGTRTA: the lexicon.

For this section, we will have to introduce some glossing conventions:

• A dash separates bound morphemes, e.g. cabbage-PL "cabbages"
• A dot separates the constituent meanings of a fusional morpheme, e.g. 3.AN.PL for the third person animate plural pronoun.
• Underscores separate multiple words used to gloss a single morpheme, e.g. what_kind_of
• The valence of a verb is indicated by a slash followed by a number, as in Erlang, e.g. swim/0, eat/1, give/2.
• Abbreviations are in uppercase, e.g. DEF for the definite article, PL for plural, etc.

Gloss abbreviations are drawn from Wikipedia's list of glossing abbreviations.

Null morphemes

Any OGTRTA language may opt out of any morpheme or inflection, by realizing it as a null morpheme. For example, let's say you wanted your language to have a Celtic-style "genitive of juxtaposition," where to refer to a noun and its possessor you just put the two nouns next to each other. At first, it might seem like OGTRTA can't do this, because nouns cannot directly modify other nouns; only verbs can.

But there is a workaround: use a genitive verb GEN/1 which is realized as null. So:

trymped y brenin
trymped ∅ y brenin
trumpet GEN/1 DEF king
the king's trumpet

Another trick lets you use genitive-case nouns as modifiers, as in German:

die Räder des Busses
die räder ∅ des busses
DEF.NEU.PL wheel-PL GEN/1 DEF.MASC.GEN bus-GEN
the wheels of the bus

Here we suppose there is a verb GEN/1 which governs the genitive case (a constraint that can be expressed via tags) and is realized as null.

When you think OGTRTA can't do something, often it can — you just have to add some null morphemes until the syntax tree is happy. But beware: the more null morphemes you add, the more ambiguous the language (generally) gets.

Determiners

• Do articles agree in number, case, or gender with their noun?
• Does the language have definite and indefinite articles?
• Are demonstratives (this, that) determiners, or verbs?
• Are possessives (my, your) determiners, or verbs?
• Are the quantifiers any, all, no determiners, or are they expressed periphrastically as nouns, e.g. all of the stars, none of the stars?
• Do the interrogative determiners which, whose exist, or are they expressed periphrastically?

Articles

• DEF singular definite article
• DEFPL plural definite article

For indefinite nouns, number is expressed periphrastically, with modifiers.

This difference in number marking strategies stems from an observation about how number is used in practice. In many indefinite noun phrases, the noun is effectively numberless:

• "Are there sheep on the hill?"
• "Everyone should send their children to school."

These examples are morphologically plural (in English) but the actual referents of the highlighted nouns might be singular or plural depending on the circumstances of the utterance.

However, a definite noun cannot be numberless, because a definite noun always refers to a specific set of things.

Quantifiers

• NEGDET negative quantifier ("there are no sheep on the hill")
• every universal quantifier ("every sheep is on the hill")

Interrogatives

• which
• what_kind_of
• how_much (also used for "how many")

Words that aren't determiners

Some types of words are determiners in English but need not be in OGTRTA. These include:

• possessive pronouns ("my", "your")
• demonstratives ("this (one)", "that (one)")

Depending on the individual language, these concepts can all expressed by verbs.

Semantics

OGTRTA employs determiners only in cases where the referent of a noun cannot be pinned down by determining modifiers. A phrase like "the bear" cannot be paraphrased by describing a kind of bear — the same goes for "no bear" and "every bear".

Possessives and demonstratives, on the other hand, can be expressed as modifiers. Precedents exist in many natural languages: English ("for the sake of them"), Italian ("la mia famiglia"), and Welsh ("y bore 'ma"), for instance. Note that in each of these cases, the modifier can coexist with the definite article.

"every" / "all" / "none" as modifiers

Since determiners cannot be used with pronouns, a periphrastic construction is needed to express e.g. "all of them" and "none of them."

• 1SG DIST see1 every being of1#M 3ANPL "I saw all of them" (lit: I saw every one of them)
• 1SG DIST see1 NEGDET being of1#M 3ANPL "I saw none of them"

Prepositions

Derived from Wikipedia's List of Grammatical Cases.

Personal Pronouns

• 1SG 1PL
• 2SG 2PL
• 3ANSG 3ANPL - animate 3rd person
• 3INANSG 3INANPL - inanimate 3rd person

Demonstratives

• here0
• there0

Atomic Verbs

• say0
• go0
• know1
• see1
• like1 like (be fond of; the comparative preposition is CMPR1)
• look1
• think1
• can1
• make1
• get1
• be1
• take
• find1
• ask2 - 1: askee, 2: thing requested
• perceive2 - 1: thing perceived, 2: quality
• feel
• turn
• want
• stand
• die
• hear
• try
• open
• begin
• let allow1

Derived Verbs

• have1 ← of1#PASS
• tell ← give2 <someone> know1#INF
• become1 ← be1#INCH
• give ← of1#CAUS or have1#CAUS
• last endure0 ← endure1#MID
• seem, appear ← perceive2#PASS

Negation

• #NEG

Morphological Tenses

• PROX proximal tense, used for events in the present.
• DIST distal tense, used for the past and for hypotheticals.
• GNO gnomic tense, used for general statements, for timeless truths, and when the speaker does not care to mark tense.

Periphrastic Tenses

• PRF perfect (← ELA1 + infinitive)
• FUT future (← ALL1 + infinitive)

Aspects

• PROG progressive (← LOC1 + infinitive)

Valence-Changing

• #MID removes all complement slots.
• #PASS swaps the subject and first complement slots.
• #MIDPASS removes the subject and promotes the first complement to subject.
• #CAUS demotes the subject to first complement, increasing valence by 1, and adds a new subject.

Valence Restoration

#MID removes all complement slots, but sometimes you don't want that; you want to keep one of the complements of a valence-2 verb but remove the other. The way to accomplish that is via valence restoration.

Each verb has a lexically-determined mapping from slot indices to verbs that restore those slots when used as modifiers. E.g. here ABL1 is used to restore slot 1 of ask2.

• 1SG PROX FUT ask2#MID ABL1#M 3ANSG "I'll ask them."

To restore slot 2, you'd have to use ALL1:

• 1SG PROX FUT ask2#MID ALL1#M 3INANSG "I'll ask for it."

Valence restoration is also useful when you want to swap the complements of a valence-2 verb:

• 1SG PROX FUT ask2#MID ALL1#M 3INANSG ABL1 3ANSG "I'll ask for it from them."

Modifiers used for valence restoration never take the adverbial particle.

Part-of-Speech-Changing

Nominalization

• #INF - nominalizes a verb, keeping complement slots
• #GER - nominalizes a verb, dropping all complement slots
• NZ - nominalizes a sentence

GEN1/of1 can be used to attach a subject to a nominalized verb:

• 1SG PROX want1 GEN1#M 2SG see1#INF 3INANSG "I want you to see it"

When used in this way, GEN1 never takes the adverbial particle.

Questions

Interrogative sentences are NPs.

Interrogative pronouns:

• what
• who

Interrogative determiners:

• which
• whose

Interrogative particles:

• whether
• how_condition ("How are you?", "How is the course going?")
• how_degree (how_degree GNO tall0 ^Barack ^Obama "How tall is Barack Obama?" = "To what degree is Barack Obama tall?")
  • also used for how_much/how_many
• why

An interrogative NP is either an interrogative pronoun, or a noun with an interrogative determiner.

TODO: replace interrogative determiners with predicates. Possessives and demonstratives aren't determiners, so why should which and whose be?

OGTRTA languages may front interrogative NPs, though some languages leave them in place. When an interrogative NP is fronted, a resumptive pronoun RES is left in its place. Languages may realize the RES morpheme as null.

• whose vassal 3ANSG FIN PERF kill1#INF RES "Whose vassal did he kill?"

Agents in non-finite clauses

The semantic agents of a non-finite clause can be added as the complement of a modifier on the main predicate. This modifier is glossed NFSBJ (non-finite subject) but is typically realized as some other morpheme: either of1 (in languages that mark first modifiers) or ADV (in languages with an adverbial predicate).

• 3ANSG PROX bring1 3INANSG "He brings it." → 1SG PROX want1 NFSBJ 3ANSG bring1#INF 3INANSG "I want him to bring it."

Modifiers on predicates

Modifier phrases can attach to predicates as well as nouns. In complex sentences, this can create undesirable ambiguity. OGTRTA languages use a couple different strategies to resolve the ambiguity.

Nearest modifier marking

In languages that use the "nearest modifier" strategy, a modifier that immediately follows the head of its parent phrase is marked with an inflection #M. Often, this marking is an initial consonant mutation, but it does not have to be.

• 1SG DIST eat0 quick0#M "I ate quickly"
• bear fierce0#M very0#M "a very fierce bear" — contrast with bear fierce0#M very0, which might mean "an actual, fierce bear."

In SOV/OVS languages, a modifier that immediately precedes the head of its parent phrase gets the #M inflection.

• 1SG quick0#M eat0 DIST "I ate quickly"

Adverbial particle

In languages that use the "adverbial particle" strategy, a verb that modifies another optionally has the particle ADV placed before it.

• 1SG DIST eat0 ADV quick0 "I ate quickly"
• bear fierce0 ADV very0 "a very fierce bear"

ADV might also precede a noun in some cases:

• 1SG DIST see1 3SG ADV thursday "I saw it on Thursday"

Conjunction modifiers (adconjunctions)

TODO

Relative Clauses

Often, a simple verb is used where in English would use a relative clause. But only relative clauses can have tense markers.

A relative clause is formed by subordinating a question to the verb REL:

• DEF bear REL what PROG#DIST chase1#INF 2SG "the bear that was chasing you"

The question can contain a resumptive pronoun:

• DEF bear REL what PROG#DIST 2SG chase1#INF RES "The bear you were chasing"

REL is often realized as some other verb, like GEN1.

Comparatives and Superlatives

• A GNO big0#AUG beyond1 B "A is bigger than B"
• A GNO big0#AUG of1 B "A is the biggest of the Bs"