Common Topic

Modifier Grades and Idiomatic Use

Keywords: modifiers

In the original Old Common language, Peter K. Davidson defined modifiers as being able to function as adjectives or adverbs depending on whether they were associated with a noun phrase or a verb phrase, and optionally being able to take an object. As well, a 'Royal order' was defined for adjective and adverbial modifiers and the forms loosely classed. However, as the language has developed and been examined by linguists looking at real-world use, other patterns have been identified. This article is about those other patterns that go beyond the original design intentions of Common.

For the most part, much of these observations are not taught to Common learners, who learn Common by memorising rules rather than looking at the big picture, especially when that big picture goes afield of the language's design. There are a few points, however, which are taught.

Dependent Clauses as Objects of Adverbial Prepositions

This is a point which does get explicitly taught, and which learners often struggle with. A dependent clause as an object of a adverbial preposition must be introduced with the verbal relativiser in the nominative case, 'sin'. For example, this is wrong:

*Ja pikki tene slek a skitrem rowéro sea tocu.

Correct:

Ja pikki tene slek a skitrem rowéro sin sea tocu.
The(ERG) cat hit(NP.PF.R) eat the(ABS) mouse because that(NOM) stand(P.IM.R) hunger.
"The cat ate the mouse because it was hungry.

Native Common speakers are very scrupulous about this point, it's a matter of native speaker intuition and not something imposed through schooling, so it's important to get this right.

Referent Noun as Object of a Preposition in Dependent Clauses

This refers to the relativiser for nouns, 'su', that introduces a dependent clause as a modifier of a noun. To review, 'su' inflects for the case of the referent noun in the dependent clause. For example:

A pikki xu a skitrem tene slek se an citit.
The(ABS) cat RELN.ERG the(ABS) mouse hit(NP.PF.R) eat stand(NP.IM.R) be happy.
The cat that ate the mouse is happy.

In this case, 'su' is in the ergative case because in the dependent clause, the referent, the cat, is the eater. But what about if the noun is not a core argument at all of the verb in the dependent clause? What if it should be the object of a modifier (preposition)? In that case, 'su' must be in the nominative case, 'sun', and it will usually be preceeded by the preposition that describes its role in the dependent clause. For example:

A hen e sun a pikki sea hitaj sea snykys.
The(ABS) bed at RELN.NOM the(ABS) cat stand(P.IM.R) sleep stand(P.IM.R) comfort-MOD.

In these forms, it is common for first class modifiers to be preferred (see below), and they can sometimes be omitted if the relation is clear from context (in which case the null preposition is typically interpreted).

Prepositional Grades of Modifiers

This is not referring to classes of modifiers like Manner and Opinion that determine the order in which modifiers appear and which were thought out in the language's design. This is instead classifications of modifiers by subsequent linguists observing the language's real-world behaviour, and really having to do in a sense with the basically verbal nature of modifiers.

Common modifiers have a distinctly verbal quality. They all have a referent, the noun or verb they are attached to, which is like a subject, and they optionally can have an object, essentially behaving like transitive or intransitive verbs. So a modifier like 'uzre' behaves like a verb meanin 'to be green', and a modifier like 'e' behaves like a verb meaning  'to be at a place', although like all Common modifiers of location or motion, it also has metaporical extensions.

There are three grades that are recognised.

Naz Keulca na Ates Nyfe - First Grade Modifiers

The first grade is marked by the following characteristics:

  • Consists of words with very simple meanings and very broad use.
  • It is a small class with a handful of members.
  • It is a closed class - Common is extremely resistant to admitting new members of this class, in fact, it has never happened.
  • Members of this class are all weak, they require an object. They cannot function without one.
  • Some members of this class are, however, known to function like prefixes, attaching to other words and deriving new meanings based on their physical or metaphorical meaning. As prefixes, they usually do not take stress.
  • Common speakers prefer to use first grade modifiers whenever possible, even though they are not precise in their meaning, and will only resort to second class modifiers when necessary.

This class is small enough that it can be tabulated out. The null preposition, which does not have a written form in modern High Common but can only be seen by its object and the impact of its trace on its host phrase (requirement of a head term of dummy 'yn') is included here.

First Grade Modifiers
Modifier Physical Meaning Metaphorical Meaning Prefix Meaning
e location at a place possession maintaining
u movement towards goal or purpose becoming/changing
ro movement away origin emphasis or completion
re N/A about N/A
lo N/A like N/A
N/A possession/association N/A

The three modifiers with a physical meaning are also the ones that tend to form semi-productive prefixes (semi-productive, because their derived words tend to have conventional meanings and it would not be typical to coin new words from these in conversation). The difference between e and ∅ in terms of possession is that e is used with verbal expressions that introduce information about possession as the main intent, and even then only with certain kinds of possession, and ∅ is used routinely to handle the most popular grade of possession in noun phrases and often to form what are essentially compound phrases like the title of this section.

Naz Keulca na Kawas Nyfe - Second Grade Modifiers

The second grade is marked by the following characteristics:

  • Consists of words with more specific and precise meanings than the first class.
  • It is a larger class than the first class but still small.
  • It is a closed class, but shows more propensity to change, especially in Low Common.
  • Members of this class usually take an object but generally could have some use case where they could be used without one, and do not tend to fuse with their head term in expressions like the first class modifiers do. They are also much less likely to participate in derivations, and have no productive derivations.
  • Some but not all are compounds that have an element of a first class modifier within them that suggests something about their meaning - e for static locations and u for dynamic motion, ro for past or origin.

This class was mostly all coined by Peterson, although some members have drifted a little in meaning. The second grade modifiers represent most of the modifiers in the attached article on Prepositions. There are some major members which arguably have some characteristics similar to the first class, like 'ceo',  'erpa' and 'wajy', in that they are clearly roots in and of themselves and they strongly require an object. However, the majority of this class shows signs of derivation. A very common pattern is a first grade modifier plus a body part.

Naz Keulca na Netys Nyfe - Third Grade Modifiers

Third grade modifiers represent the vast majority of modifiers. They are marked by the following characteristics:

  • This is a very large class and covers a large semantic territory but are typically descriptive without describing a relationship between two things.
  • It is an open class that readily takes new members, through productive derivation from terms with the suffix -ys, and through borrowing.
  • Members of this class cannot take objects.
  • There is no specific pattern to the words in this class at all, they can be roots, compounds or derivations, but they tend to be much less succinct than the first class.

Examples of the third grade are 'uzre', 'green', and 'citit', 'happy'.

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