{~} /graminee: a language for living
such is the immodest ambition of this project which moves at a snail's pace while changing at a hare's.
Graminee is the continuously albeit loosely compiled grammar of a theoretical language for use in note-taking, daoposting, and wordplay. it allows flexible interpretation of meanings and the construction of simple koan-type phrases. the epuration of grammar and syntax enables play with words, etc.
topic and focus : the structure
because I like to hope that the new is in the future and not in the past, the topic precedes the focus in typical sentences. this yields information structures which branch to the left (/ indicates topic/focus break):
time/goes_by;
the leaves/still green [are];
I/you love;
hanging lemons/yellowing ripen;
(as for) young foliage/brown_turns.
being and acting : the paradigm
“verbs” take many forms which are also few. they are articulated by a two-dimensional matrix: perfection and realness.
(im)perfective : aspect
one principal aspect of sign inflection is the distinction of perfective from imperfective values.
the imperfective aspect imparts a continuity to the verb. it implies a nonfinite quality to the action or state described, which may be maintained from and until an uncertain time. it corresponds to the “simple” and ”progressive” presents, pasts and futures:
I slept;
you were feeling my love;
again we cross;
I will tell you...
notice the lack of tense distinction : time as we concieve of it (movement from an unchangeable past to an unknowable future through an infinitely thin present) is not welcome here. instead the question of whether an action is important by its doing (imperfective aspect) or by its resulting state. perfective turns the 'verb' from an active participle-like hybrid object into a kind of adjective : it denotes not an action (with agents, patients, operators) but a fully independent quality which is applied to a being/subject/object/substantive in a closed system. it also imparts the flavor of a passive voice, although I don't really enjoy that kind of use, nor that which uses perfective to denote the past. the distinction of active and passive assumes a rapport with nature and non-active things which I find outdated. instead, all can be subjects and objects of verbs at once. verbs organise themselves with their operators and parameters to make the profoundly bilateral nature of transitive action apparent.
the perfective aspect corresponds to the perfects of indo-european languages :
I have gone; (vs. I went)
they had grown begonias; (vs. they grew begonias)
you will have heard from them; (vs. you will hear from them)
the afternoon has lasted so long, and still the evening has not come. (vs. still the evening comes not)
it brings with it anteriority, result, puts emphasis on the termination of the action. it therefore highlights either the effect or result of the process, or the fact of its finitude : it is used for processes and acts that happen at specific times and/or are non-continuous, semelfactive (unique in history) or otherwise predictable/known in their ending. I reckon you could add to it the value of telicity (goal achieved), against an atelic (attempt at X; result uncertain) : I shot at the bear (imperfective, atelic) v. I have shot the bear (perfective, telic). if an action is not yet complete, the use of the perfective accents the extension of the action, its (woeful) duration.
(ir)realis : virtuality and facticity
I just thought of adding in realis/irrealis distinctions (between what is factual and what is not factual; real (i.e. indicative mood) vs non-real (conditional, subjunctive, optative moods)), because it looks really sexy and allows for the formation of subjunctive clauses which I love. it also enables the formation of optative, total interrogatives, and conditionals or counterfactuals.
had i known;
if the hair was black;
i do not know of what it is the child.
will the fact of the love of me be eternal?
derivation : word and worded
the basis of the sign system is the root concepts which have a phonological skeleton which vowels and affixation derive into grammatical and lexical forms. A concept covers a wide area and may act as a verb, substantive, adjective or adverb, or particle depending on its place and shape.
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needed words
worth, be owed, deserve, entitle, leading to;
divide, limit, hedge, scar, private;
support, be upon/under, hold, subsume, foundation;
decoration, orn, use, hanging, vain ;
???
*tăl :: divide, etc.
*-h :: plants, vivacious things, living
*tăl-h : a-u : táluḫ :: hedge : imperfect realis : (that which) is (now) a hedge; dividing with leaves
*man :: orn, etc.