logical language - Developers

Ithkuil: A Philosophical Design for a Hypothetical Language
Home Introduction 4 Case Morphology 8 Adjuncts 12 The Number System
FAQs 1 Phonology 5 Verb Morphology 9 Syntax List of Abbreviations
Links of Interest 2 Morpho-Phonology 6 More Verb Morphology 10 Lexico-Semantics The Lexicon
Updates / News 3 Basic Morphology 7 Suffixes 11 The Writing System Texts
Chapter 2: Morpho-Phonology
2.1 Grammatical Typology 2.4 Parts of Speech
2.2 Root and Stem Formation 2.5 Note On Terminology
2.3 Semantic Instantiation of Stems
Morpho-phonology refers to how a language uses its phonemes (meaningful sounds) and phonological features (e.g., stress, tone, etc.)
to generate patterns for word-formation and for morphological categories (e.g., singular versus plural, verb tense, etc.) to be applied to
words.
2.1 GRAMMATICAL TYPOLOGY
Ithkuil morpho-phonology is primarily agglutinative and secondarily synthetic. That is, the manner in which morpho-semantic stems,
inflections and derivations are formed, and how those elements combine meaningfully into words, is primarily via the joining of one or
more affixes (including prefixes, suffixes, infixes and interfixes) to a semantic root, where the affixes themselves are highly synthetic
(i.e., combining numerous morphological categories together into a single phonological form).
2.1.1 The Structure of Ithkuil Words
As will be discussed later in Section 2.4, the part of speech in Ithkuil which corresponds to nouns and verbs in Western languages is
called a formative. The morphological structure of the Ithkuil formative can be shown by the following formula:
(((Cv +) VL +) Cg/Cs +) Vr + (Cx/Cv + Vp/VL +) Cr + Vc (+ Ci +Vi) + Ca (+ VxC ) (+ Vf (+ Cb)) [+ tone] [+ stress]
The above terms, other than Cr, [tone] and [stress], refer to various consonantal or vocalic affixes. Cr corresponds to the word-root
itself which is dicussed below in Section 2.2. All of the terms shown in gray are optional. However, as indicated by the pattern of
parentheses in the formula, the presence of certain terms requires the presence of others.
The above morphological formula can be looked at as a series of numbered “slots” which will perhaps facilitate explanation of each
term:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV
(((Cv) VL) Cg/Cs) Vr (Cx/Cv Vp/VL) Cr Vc Ci +Vi Ca VxC (Vf (’Cb))[tone] [stress]
Phase +
Sanction
(+ Illocution)
Valence Validation
OR
Aspect
(+ Mood)
Pattern +
Stem +
Function
Incorp.Root
OR
Phase +
Sanction
(+ Illocution)
Pattern + Stem +
Designation of Incorp.
Root
OR
Valence
Root Case Illocution
+
Mood
Essence +
Extension +
Perspective +
Configuration +
Affiliation
Deriv.
Suffix
Context +
Format
Bias Version Designation
+
Relation