Ákat actions: a feast to remember?

The final grammar of the Ákat language has not yet been resolved - much to the pleasure of the Nakap philosophers, who enjoy a good argument. The thorniest problem still to be solved in the development of the "perfect" language is that of the action prefix.

The action prefix poses a particular problem because its constituent particles are not in themselves indivisible - they are clearly made up of smaller morphemes, but the fusion of the morphemes in each particle does not follow a regular pattern. Through the centuries many schemes have been proposed for regularising the action prefix, but each plan has floundered due to the ultimately unsustainable arguments underpinning the philosophy of the scheme.

The result of this disagreement is that Ákat retains many action prefixes from the base languages, though over time they have continued to evolve naturally (unlike much of the rest of the language). The list of particles below is the one agreed by grammarians at a major conference in gt1039, which has proved to be more stable than any other attempt to date.

C	g	M	G	v	V	a	D	p	E
tense+ conjunctions	agentive class	modality	agentive root	action class +aspect	action root	agent marker	agentive determiner	patient marker	evidentiality marker

The purpose of the action prefix is threefold:

to denote the key modality of the clause, which can be either indicative, interrogative, negative or interrogative-negative
to denote the key tense of the clause, which can be either past or non past
to determine the scope of the clause, in other words whether the clause is dealing with statement, time, place, product, method, tool, quantity, purpose or comparison; and to control the interaction between the current clause and the previous clause

There are a total of 13 clause scopes in Ákat, each of which can be cast positively (indicative, interrogative) and negatively (negative, negative-interrogative). Each of these in turn have different tense forms, the tenses being past and non-past.

The division between positive and negative scopes is particularly important. When it comes to negating an action, Ákat verbs can be divided into two broad groups:

the majority of verbs fall within the scope-negated group - for these verbs, using the negative scope will indicate that the action does not take place
for a small number of verbs - the aspect-negated verbs - the negative scope is used to indicate an opposing action to that given by the indicative scope rather than a simple absence of action. For these verbs, negation has to be shown through the negative aspect particle

For instance, the verbs associated with the act of giving and taking all fall within the aspect-negated group: for these verbs, the indicative scopes are used to show that the agent is taking something (the patient) from someone (the oblique), while the negative scopes are used to show that the agent is giving something to someone.

For convenience, the Nakap philosophers divide the thirteen scopes into four groups: discourse, narrative, timestream and relativiser:

Discourse scopes

Most clauses don't need to include much information beyond that supplied by the actions and objects within them.

Default scope - this is the commonest scope. Clauses cast in this scope show no particular grammatical relationship with the previous clause; any relationships that do occur, for instance the implication that the action in a second clause follows the action in the first, are the result of context.
Additional scope - this scope is often used to add further information to the conversation – a good translation would be 'and'. It's also the scope to use when a speaker or writer wants to add emphasis to the clause contents.
Alternate scope - similar to the additional scope, a clause in cast in the alternate scope is supplying additional information, though the point being made here is that there is a disjoint or contrast between this clause and what has gone before. Often translated as 'or' (or when following a clause cast in a comparative scope, 'else').
Comparative scope - this scope sets up a condition or comparison – the best translation is often 'if' or 'then'. Questions that are set up with the interrogative comparative scopes are often answered by clauses cast in the indicative comparative scopes.

Scope	Positive scopes				Negative scopes
	Indicative		Interrogative		Negative		Neg-Interrogative
	Past	Non-past	Past	Non-past	Past	Non-past	Past	Non-past
Default	hm-	-	cuhm-	cu-	xahm-	xa-	cuxahm-	cuxa-
Additional	hme-	e-	cehm-	cue-	xehm-	xae-	cuxehm-	cuxae-
Alternative	hmo-	o-	cohm-	cuo-	xohm-	xao-	cuxohm-	cuxao-
Comparative	cirhm-	ciri-	corihm-	curi-	xacorihm-	xacuri-	cuxacorihm-	cuxacuri-

Narrative scopes

Ákat speakers and writers often feel the need to set the conversation within a narrative structure. This is not a formal way of thinking, but rather a means of indicating whether the clause represents a starting point, an end point or a movement between the two. Additionally, people often want to locate the time or place to which information in the discourse relates (eg who, where, when). The narrative scopes allow people to flag particular clauses to points in the current story – whether the conversation is personal, factual or speculative.

The key rule is not to overuse the narrative scopes. Marking one clause with the appropriate scope is often enough, as people will assume that subsequent clauses expand on that initial clause until a clause with a different narrative scope is introduced.

Commencement scope - clauses cast in this scope often deal with original situations, scene setting, the state of things before something happened.
Locative scope - this scope is often used when people want to tie information to a particular time, place or person.
Change scope - used to indicate that the previous narrative scope has ended – it doesn't set a point in the narrative (it might be useful to think of it as an end marker), but rather allows for things to develop and change.
Terminal scope - the desired end point or possible outcome (not tense related, the outcome could already have happened)

Scope	Positive scopes				Negative scopes
	Indicative		Interrogative		Negative		Neg-Interrogative
	Past	Non-past	Past	Non-past	Past	Non-past	Past	Non-past
Commencement	nihm-	ni-	noahm-	noa-	naihm-	nai-	cunaihm-	cunai-
Locative	xylihm-	xyli-	cuxylihm-	cuxyli-	xaxhmil-	xaxil-	cuxaxhmil-	cuxaxil-
Change	mylhm-	myli-	cumylhm-	cumyli-	xamylhm-	xamyli-	cuxamylhm-	cuxamyli-
Terminal	fylhm-	fyli	cufylhm-	cufyli-	xifylhm-	xifyli-	cuxafylhm-	cuxafyli-

Timestream scopes

Within the discourse and narrative, there is a need to be able to relate two clauses together in the time stream of events. This is achieved by casting the second clause into one of the timestream scopes.

Temporal scope - this scope connects two clauses in a time frame, though the positions of each clause within the timestream relative to the other is demonstrated through each verb's aspect marker. Good translations include 'while', 'as', 'before', 'after', 'until', 'following'.
Productive scope - this scope explicitly marks the clause as following the previous clause in the timestream, and indicates that the clause is the direct result of the previous action. A good translation would be 'as a result of'.
Causal scope - the causal scope is the opposite of the productive scope. A clause cast in this scope marks it as preceding the previous clause in the timestream, and indicates that it is the direct cause of the previous action. A good translation would be 'because'.

Scope	Positive scopes				Negative scopes
	Indicative		Interrogative		Negative		Neg-Interrogative
	Past	Non-past	Past	Non-past	Past	Non-past	Past	Non-past
Temporal	sinhm-	sini-	soihm-	sinoi-	sainhm-	sinai-	cusainhm-	cusinai-
Productive	xynihm-	xynni-	cuxynihm-	cuxynni-	xaxhmin-	xaxin-	cuxaxhmin-	cuxaxin-
Causal	mehm-	me-	moehm-	moe-	maehm-	mae-	cumaehm-	cumae-

Relativiser scopes

Ákat permits relativisations – the modification of an object by an action - and even allows relative clauses to be 'nested'. The restrictions on when and how a relative clause can be deployed are given in more detail on the object syntax webpage.

The choice of whether the agent or patient relativiser scope should be used depends on the role of the object being modified within the relative clause, not its role in the main clause.

Agent relativiser scope - the agent relativiser action requires the object being modified to be the agent of the relative clause, and will immediately follow that object in the sentence. If the object being modified is already an agent of a clause, which has been incorporated into a verb, the the relative clause will immediately follow the verb – displacing any temporal obliques that may be operating on that verb.
Patient relativiser scope - the patient relativiser action assumes that the object being modified is the patient of the relative action, which means that it can also introduce a new agent within the relative clause as long as that agent is incorporated into the relative verb.

Scope	Positive scopes				Negative scopes
	Indicative		Interrogative		Negative		Neg-Interrogative
	Past	Non-past	Past	Non-past	Past	Non-past	Past	Non-past
Agent relativiser	kihm-	ki-	koihm-	koi-	kaihm-	kai-	cukaihm-	cukai-
Patient relativiser	tihm-	ti-	toihm-	toi-	taihm-	tai-	cutaihm-	cutai-