Arêndron Syntax
3: Word order

The noun phrase

The elements of the noun phrase standardly come in the following order:

(Determiner) (Quantifier) (Noun) (Adjective(s)) (Possessive) (Locative) (Relative clause(s))

For example:

ra sei prôthan rûl ghên grœnhen, do dreisnoŋ
my six blue books there that you gave me
(literally, “the six books blue mine there, that you gave”)

Determiners and quantifiers

Determiners and quantifiers always precede the noun they modify; prôthan ra or prôthan sei sounds just as wrong to an Arêndron speaker as “books the” or “books six” does to us.

Since the function of a quantifier is to state how many things (in this example, books) we are talking about, and the function of a determiner to state which things (here, which six books), at most one of each can modify any one noun. Also, not all quantifiers can be further modified by a determiner at all; môra “all” is an example. All books are all books; it makes no sense to say “these all books” or “those all books”. (One can say “all those books”, but this is another matter entirely; a quantifier modifying a determiner or pronoun is analysed as a larger noun phrase enclosing the smaller one, and the determiner is placed in the associative: môra grœnoi prôthan.)

One point to notice in particular, as this is different from English usage, is that superlatives are classed as determiners and do not require (indeed, cannot take) a second determiner such as the definite article: zansâbra glem “the happiest man”, not *ra zansâbra glem. (A noun can, however, be modified by two superlatives, by giving the second the suffix -mi, equivalent to “and”.)

As there is no indefinite article, the absence of a determiner is taken to give indefinite reference: sei prôthan “(some) six books”. For example, dreisnê ŋeuth sei prôthan, “I gave you six books”, says nothing about which six books I gave to you, and is contrasted with dreisnê ŋeuth ghaul sei prôthan, “I gave you those six books”, implying that the listener knows which books are meant.

Either a quantifier or a determiner may be used as an anaphor to stand in for an earlier noun:

Teirenê sei prôthan, sen dwainê môra
I saw six books, and I took all of them

When used as anaphors in this way, quantifiers and determiners may take case inflections like normal nouns. Determiners (but not quantifiers) also take plural inflection if the noun they replace is plural. Anaphoric determiners and quantifiers may not be modified by any other noun phrase elements, except for a locative or a relative clause.

Adjectives

The unmarked position for adjectives is immediately after the noun. However, a single adjective may precede the noun; this has the effect of giving special emphasis to the adjective, for instance when one wishes to contrast two adjectives:

Ŋastê rûl proth, kho's ŋas
I want a blue book, not a white one

The adjective is also placed before the noun when the two are a “linked pair”; that is, when the adjective alters the meaning of the noun in a more specific way than its usual meaning. A white book, proth ŋas, is nothing more than a book that is white; ŋas glem, “white man”, does not refer to a person of a certain colour (the skin colour we call white is zirya, “yellow”, to an Arêndron) but to the role of a comic villain in Arêndron theatre, traditionally performed by an actor with white face-paint. Glem ŋas would instead suggest the more general concept “man who is white”.

When several adjectives are present, they are preferred to come in the following order:

(Noun) – Material – Colour – Shape – Age – Size – Quality

guin vinton ŋas rûva dunt pœsa
a small new round white stone house

(Because Arêndron puts adjectives after the noun, the entire sequence has been reversed in the English translation of the above example to illustrate how the Arêndron order would “feel” if we used it in English. The important thing is which adjectives tend to come closest to the noun, and the rules for this are similar, though not identical, in the two languages. Of course, one does not normally use this many adjectives with a single noun!)

Possessives

Standardly, possessives follow the noun: telnha ghêa, “my friend”. As with adjectives, a possessive may sometimes precede the noun in order to specially emphasise the possessor or contrast it with another: “my friend, not yours”. This, however, can only be done when the possessor is a pronoun (as in this example) or a personal name.

Note that possessives, when they come in their normal position after the noun, are still subject to the definite / indefinite distinction. “My friend” should be translated as ra telnha ghêa if I have only one; omitting the article implies that I have more. If an indefinite possessive such as telnha ghêa has been mentioned already, and one wants to refer again to the same friend, this can be done with a demonstrative: grœn telnha (ghêa) “that friend (of mine)”, with the possessive pronoun being optional as it will usually be clear from context.

Possessives before the noun do not take a determiner and are ambiguous between the definite and indefinite readings.

The clause

The standard order for the elements of a clause is verb, subject, object:

Shingena Fontin friŋkar
Fontin found a rabbit

Not all clauses have all three elements; some verbs, such as preth- “to jump”, have no object, and if the subject is a pronoun it is not present as a separate word, as it is marked on the verb. Thus a clause can consist of just the verb: prethê, “I am jumping”.

When the subject presents new or contrasting information, it can precede the verb:

Leshê kleissa, mor Tarûn glœsa
I like milk, but Tarûn loves it

Vâral glœsate kleissa? Tarûn sau.
Who loves milk? Tarûn does.

Dhôrus dereithen
Dhôrus has arrived
(I was expecting someone, but I'm surprised that it's him.)

Note that interrogative pronouns, such as vâral in the example above, are always considered to be new information (although the pronoun does not provide new information, but rather requests it). When the interrogative pronoun is the subject of the verb, therefore, it can always be fronted – but does not have to be. Glœsate vâral kleissa? is an equally grammatical way of asking the same question. The difference is that the version with vâral fronted emphasises the pronoun; in other words, it says that there is no question that someone loves milk; you just need to know who.

The direct object can also be fronted, but when this is done, a dummy pronoun is left in the sentence to show which noun is the subject and which the object:

Kleissa glœsa Tarûn hagh
It is milk that Tarûn loves
(literally, “milk, Tarûn loves it”)

Var glœsate Tarûn hagh?
What does Tarûn love?

Notice that the only way to achieve an equivalent emphasis effect in English is with a cleft: “It is…that”. While it is possible to construct a cleft in Arêndron (au kleissa, do Tarûn glœsa), this would be seen as unnecessarily longwinded and therefore rather pompous.

Relative clauses begin with the relative pronoun do, regardless of whether this replaces the subject or object (or indeed another argument; more on this later):

Kœlnê ra glem, d'orzûla Binda
I met the man who loves Binda

Kœlnê ra glem, do Binda orzûlagh
I met the man whom Binda loves

In the second example, the subject (Binda) is also fronted before the verb, because a relative pronoun is always treated as the topic of its clause, and so when the pronoun is the object, the subject is considered new information. This allows the two sentences above to be distinguished.

Indirect objects

Arêndron distinguishes three types of indirect object, named after the cases used for them: genitive, dative and instrumental. The unmarked position for the indirect object is immediately before the direct object; however, as the indirect object is always marked for case, this rule is more relaxed than the “subject before object” rule, and the indirect object may migrate to the end of the clause. (The exception is with verbs of saying, used with a quotation of the actual words. Quotational objects always come after the indirect object – the person the words were spoken to.)

Darnê Lanrôgath proth / Darnê proth Lanrôgath
I showed a book to Lanrog

Guilnê Lanrôgath, “Au klet proth.”
I said to Lanrog, “This is a book.”

In the first example above, where both word orders are possible, the first is more natural and carries no particular emphasis; the second puts especial emphasis on the indirect object. To emphasise the direct object instead, the first word order must be used together with intonation – in particular, a break in intonation occurs before the direct object.

Note that for some verbs, Arêndron uses a dechticaetiative construction; the object considered to be direct in English is treated as an (instrumental) indirect object, and vice versa:

Dreisnê prôthos Lanrog
I gave a book to Lanrog

See the dictionary for further information on which verbs take which type of indirect object.

Adverbs and adverbials

Adverbials are nouns, pronouns or noun phrases that modify the verb but are not one of the core arguments (subject, object or indirect object). The unmarked position for adverbials is at the end of the clause after the core arguments; when multiple adverbials are present, there is a fairly rigid rule that they come in the following order: purpose, manner, place, time.

Deisnê guin thesatith vintos ghaulyen lêsâshen
I built a house for living in with stone over there yesterday

Any one adverbial may be moved either to the very beginning of the clause or the very end for especial emphasis. Normally, the only difference between moving an adverbial to the beginning of the clause and moving it to the end is that the latter suggests extra information, perhaps something the speaker only just thought of saying; the former rather suggests that the adverbial is vital to the point the speaker wants to make. Also, when two clauses are joined by a conjunction, moving an adverbial to the beginning of the first clause can make it modify both verbs, so long as it is not contradicted by a later adverbial (for instance, lêsâshen “yesterday” before the first verb and klêtâshen “today” before the second).

By contrast, adverbs by default come immediately after the verb; however, like adverbials, they can be moved to the beginning or end of the clause for similar emphasis reasons. Only one element can be emphasised in this way; it is considered bad style to have two elements out of place, such as an adverbial moved to the beginning of a clause and an adverb moved to the end.