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:

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, Αkat verbs can be divided into two broad groups:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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-

This page was last updated on Tecunuuntuu-17, 527: Salhkuu-69 Gevile