Status: Working draft, v0.1. Two parts:
- Part I — Linguistic and grammatical terms used in the documentation
- Part II — Interlinear gloss abbreviations (canonical reference)
When a term has a Simavokab particle or suffix associated with it, that form is given in parentheses. Cross-references point to sections in
GRAMMAR.mdunless otherwise noted.
Adjective A modifier that describes a property of a noun. In Simavokab, adjectives are formed by ROOT + -al and follow the noun they modify, in a fixed three-level ordering (classificatory → descriptive → evaluative). A clause-final adjective with no following verb is a predicative adjective. See §4.3, §4.4.
Adverb A modifier that describes how, when, where, or to what degree an action or property holds. Formed by ROOT + -il. Adverbs precede the particle cluster and verb. See §4.3, §4.5.
Agentive infix (-ir-) An infix inserted between a verb root and a noun class suffix to form a noun meaning "the one who performs the action." Example: bev (drink) → bevirun (drinker, sapient class). See §4.1.
Agreement The grammatical requirement that certain forms match each other in a specified feature. In Simavokab, third-person pronouns must agree in class with their antecedent noun. Mismatch is a detectable error. See §7.
Anticausative An intransitive verb form expressing that an event occurred affecting the patient, without asserting or implying an external agent. Formed by ROOT + -an for verbs that license this alternation. Example: derin (destroy something) → deran (become destroyed). Contrast with passive, which Simavokab lacks as a morphological category. The anticausative is semantically licensed only for dynamic causative verbs expressing physical change of state. See §5.2, §5.2.1.
Antecedent The noun phrase that a pronoun or relative clause refers back to. In tal kanem tazem rem ronan lev ("the dog that runs"), tal kanem is the antecedent of the relative clause.
Aspect A grammatical category marking the internal temporal structure of an event — whether it is completed, ongoing, habitual, just beginning, etc. Simavokab marks aspect with preverbal particles: dur (progressive), pef (perfective), zab (habitual), biv (inceptive). Aspect particles follow tense and distance in the canonical stacking order. See §6.4.
Attributive adjective An adjective that modifies a noun within a noun phrase, rather than predicating a property of a subject. In Simavokab, an adjective is attributive when it precedes a verb in the same clause. Contrast predicative adjective. See §5.4.
Case marker A post-nominal particle that explicitly marks the grammatical role of a noun phrase. In Simavokab: sav (subject) and dob (direct object). Optional in simple sentences where word order is unambiguous; required (or strongly recommended) in formal register for complex SOV sentences with heavy noun phrases. See §6.11.
Clause boundary marker (lev) The particle lev marks the end of an embedded clause — relative, complement, or conditional. Required in complex sentences; may be omitted in short, unambiguous spoken relative clauses. See §8.3.
Closed class A grammatical category that does not readily accept new members. Simavokab particles, pronouns, and interjections form closed classes; new members require explicit revision of the grammar. Contrast open class (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs), which can accept new roots.
Collective noun (-up) A noun denoting a structured group of entities sharing coordination, membership, or collective identity. Distinct from a plural, which is a bare assertion of multiple tokens without internal structure. See §3, ONTOLOGY.md §5.
Complement clause A clause that functions as an argument of a verb — as its subject or object. Simavokab introduces complement clauses with the particle gav and closes them with lev. Example: Mariranom sapin gav Jonanom pas movan lev ("Mary knows that John moved"). Contrast relative clause. See §5.6 [forthcoming in v0.6].
Complementiser (gav) The particle that opens a complement clause. Distinct from the relative clause marker (taz-CLASS). See §5.6 [forthcoming].
Compound noun A noun formed by joining two or more roots with the linker vowel -a-, followed by a class suffix. Example: dom-a-peras-up ("household, family group"). The primary stress falls on the first root; secondary stress on subsequent roots. See §1.3.
Conditional sentence A sentence expressing an if-then relation. Opened by sif (if) and the consequent by dan (then). See §10.7.
Copula A verb meaning "to be" in some sense. Simavokab has no general copula; the function is distributed across bidin (identity), tipin (type membership), pirin (property predication), zivan (existence), patin (part-whole), and mibin (set membership). Zero-copula predicative adjective construction handles the most common informal case. See §5.3, §5.4.
Degree modifier A particle that modifies the intensity of an adjective or adverb. Precedes its target. Simavokab degree modifiers: vel (very), pok (somewhat), tes (barely), nep (almost), top (too much). See §4.3.
Determiner A particle that specifies reference or quantity of a noun phrase. Simavokab determiners: tal (the), hal (a/an), nal (this), zal (that), kel (which/what). See §6.9.
Ditransitive verb (-on) A verb that takes three arguments: subject, direct object, and indirect object. Example: donon (give — someone gives something to someone). The indirect object is marked by par in SVO; in SOV, the order is S IO O V. See §5.1, §10.2.
Evidential A grammatical element encoding the source or basis of the speaker's knowledge. Simavokab has an optional closed-class evidential system: tid (witnessed), tob (heard/told), ged (inferred), set (generally accepted). Sentence-initial position. See §6.13.
Gerund (-ag) A nominalised event or process. Formed by ROOT + -ag. Example: ronag (the running), derinag (the destruction). Used frequently with associative prepositions to express relations: derinag pes sitek (the city's destruction), movanag pab Jonanom (John's arrival). See §3.
Indeterminate pronoun A pronoun referring to an agent or causer whose identity is unknown. Simavokab has two series: zan (class fully unknown) and the h- series for class-known, identity-unknown agents (hun sapient, hem animate, hiv living, har natural force, hek artifact/system, hab abstract, hup group). See §7.3.
Infix A morpheme inserted within a root rather than attached at an edge. Simavokab has two role-marking infixes: -ir- (agent) and -ul- (patient). See §4.1.
Infix, agent (-ir-) See agentive infix.
Infix, patient (-ul-) A morphological element inserted between a verb root and a noun class suffix to form a noun meaning "the one/thing undergoing the action." Example: lov (love) → lovulun (beloved person). See §4.1.
Interjection A closed class of forms that can bend the CVC phonotactic rule (using the stop). Simavokab interjections include 'o' (surprise), 'e' (attention), hah (laughter), bas (stop), vas (well done). See §1.5.
Intransitive verb (-an) A verb taking one argument (subject only). No direct object. Example: vivan (live), ronan (run). See §5.1.
Lexical class / open class Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs — categories that can receive new roots. Contrast closed class.
Modal particle A preverbal particle expressing possibility, obligation, desire, or advisability. Simavokab modals: pos (can/possible), deb (must/obligated), vol (want), sel (should). nul (not) is the verbal negator and also occupies modal position. Modals precede tense in the canonical stacking order. See §6.5, §6.6.
Morpheme The minimal unit of grammatical meaning. In Simavokab, morphemes include: roots (CVC or CVCVC forms carrying lexical meaning), class suffixes, role infixes, aspect particles, and function particles.
Noun class One of eight ontological categories that every noun must belong to, marked by a mandatory class suffix. The eight classes are: sapient (-un), animate (-em), living (-iv), natural (-ar), artificial (-ek), abstract (-ab), group (-up), gerund (-ag). See §3, ONTOLOGY.md.
Noun template The canonical ordering of morphemes in a Simavokab noun: ROOT + (ROLE infix) + CLASS suffix + (-es plural) + (-os ownership). See §4.2.
Ontological coercion The deliberate substitution of a non-canonical class suffix to foreground a different ontological aspect of a referent. Example: sitek (city as built artifact, canonical) → situp (city as political community, coercion). Coercion is a meaningful choice, not an error. See ONTOLOGY.md §3.
Particle A closed-class function word in Simavokab. The particle inventory covers quantifiers, tense, aspect, modality, logical connectives, determiners, prepositions, case markers, interrogatives, evidentials, quotation markers, and the topic, conditional, and clause-boundary markers.
Particle stacking order The canonical order of preverbal particles: MODAL → TENSE → TEMPORAL DISTANCE → ASPECT → VERB. See §6.6.
Patient infix (-ul-) See infix, patient.
Phonotactics The rules governing which sequences of sounds are permissible within a word. Simavokab's core phonotactic rule: every content and function word begins with a consonant, alternates consonant and vowel, and ends with a consonant. No CC sequence within a word is permitted. See §1.3.
Plural (-es) A suffix marking simple numerical plurality (more than one). Suppressed when a quantifier or number word is present. Distinct from the collective (-up) class. See §4.2, ONTOLOGY.md §5.
Post-nominal Occurring after the noun. In Simavokab: adjectives are post-nominal; case markers are post-nominal. Contrast pre-nominal: determiners, quantifiers, and degree modifiers precede their targets.
Predicate adjective / predicative adjective An adjective that predicates a property of the subject rather than modifying a noun attributively. In Simavokab, an adjective is predicative when it is clause-final with no following verb. Example: tal dariv magal ("the tree is big"). See §5.4.
Preposition A particle expressing a spatial, temporal, logical, or relational connection between two noun phrases. Simavokab prepositions are pre-nominal (precede the noun phrase they govern). See §6.10.
Proper noun (-anom) A noun referring to a specific named individual, place, or entity. Proper nouns are formed by phonotactically adapting the original name and appending -anom. Example: John → Jonanom. See §9.
Quantifier A determiner expressing quantity. Simavokab quantifiers: nol (no/none), sol (some), mul (many), dol (all/every). Any quantifier (including number words) suppresses the plural suffix -es. See §6.1.
Reflexive pronoun (zib) A pronoun referring back to the subject of the clause. zib = self. Contrast reciprocal (nav = each other). See §7.2.
Register A variety of language used in a specific social context. Simavokab has three registers distinguished primarily by word order: formal/written (SOV), everyday spoken (SVO), and command (VSO). Formal register also requires evidential marking, resumptive pronouns in all relative clauses, and case markers in complex sentences. See §10.1.
Relative clause A clause that modifies a noun (its antecedent). Introduced by taz- + the class suffix of the antecedent. Contains a resumptive pronoun in formal register. Closed by lev. Contrast complement clause. See §8.
Relative marker (taz-CLASS) The particle taz- combined with the antecedent's class suffix to introduce a relative clause. Example: tazem (relative marker for animate antecedent), tazun (sapient), tazab (abstract). See §8.1.
Resumptive pronoun A pronoun within a relative clause that occupies the syntactic position of the antecedent and agrees with it in class. Required in formal register for all relative clauses (including intransitive). Optional in informal register for intransitive relative clauses only. See §8.2.
Root The core lexical form of a word, before affixes are added. Roots are CVC or CVCVC (and longer by the same alternating pattern). Examples: bev (drink), peras (person), mag (big). Stress falls on the first vowel of the root.
Semantic coercion See ontological coercion.
Sentential negation (nik) Negation of the entire proposition rather than just the verb phrase. nik mun vizin tun = "It is not the case that I see you." Contrast verbal negation (nul). See §10.5.
Topic construction (tev) A construction in which a noun phrase is fronted before the main clause and marked with tev, with its role in the clause filled by a resumptive pronoun. Functions as the primary patient-focus device, replacing the discourse-focusing function of passive voice. Example: tal bukek tev, Jonanom pas makin rek ("As for the book, John made it"). See §10.6.
Transitive verb (-in) A verb taking two arguments: subject and direct object. Example: vizin (see), sapin (know), derin (destroy). See §5.1.
Valency The number and type of arguments a verb requires. Simavokab encodes valency in the verb suffix: -an (one argument, intransitive), -in (two arguments, transitive), -on (three arguments, ditransitive). Valency is obligatorily marked; there is no default transitivity. See §5.1.
Verbal negation (nul) Negation of the verb phrase. mun nul vizin tun = "I do not see you." nul occupies the modal position in the particle stacking order. Contrast sentential negation (nik). See §10.5.
Word-boundary rule The phonotactic rule that any CC sequence (two consonants with no intervening vowel) marks a word boundary. This rule makes Simavokab tokenisable by a finite-state automaton without lexicon lookup. See §1.3, DESIGN.md §3.1.
Zero-copula construction The informal predicative adjective construction in which a clause-final adjective predicates a property without any copular verb. tal dariv magal = "the tree is big." See §5.4.
This is the canonical reference for abbreviations used in interlinear glosses throughout the documentation. All examples in GRAMMAR.md, EXAMPLES.md, and ONTOLOGY.md should use these abbreviations consistently.
| Abbreviation | Meaning | Suffix |
|---|---|---|
| SAP | Sapient | -un |
| ANIM | Animate | -em |
| LIV | Living (non-animate) | -iv |
| NAT | Natural | -ar |
| ART | Artificial | -ek |
| ABST | Abstract | -ab |
| GRP | Group / Collective | -up |
| GER | Gerund / Process | -ag |
| Abbreviation | Meaning | Form |
|---|---|---|
| PL | Plural | -es |
| OWN | Alienable ownership | -os |
| AGT | Agent-role infix | -ir- |
| PAT | Patient-role infix | -ul- |
| PROP | Proper noun | -anom |
| Abbreviation | Meaning | Form |
|---|---|---|
| RESUM | Resumptive pronoun | (class-matched 3rd person form) |
| REFL | Reflexive | zib |
| RECIP | Reciprocal | nav |
| INDET | Indeterminate (class unknown) | zan |
| INDET-SAP | Indeterminate sapient | hun |
| INDET-ANIM | Indeterminate animate | hem |
| INDET-LIV | Indeterminate living | hiv |
| INDET-NAT | Indeterminate natural | har |
| INDET-ART | Indeterminate artifact | hek |
| INDET-ABST | Indeterminate abstract | hab |
| INDET-GRP | Indeterminate group | hup |
| Abbreviation | Meaning | Particle |
|---|---|---|
| PST | Past tense | pas |
| PRS | Present tense (default, often omitted) | nun |
| FUT | Future tense | fus |
| NEAR | Near temporal distance | zip |
| MOD | Moderate temporal distance | zap |
| DIST | Remote temporal distance | zup |
| PRG | Progressive aspect | dur |
| PFV | Perfective aspect | pef |
| HAB | Habitual aspect | zab |
| INCEP | Inceptive aspect | biv |
| Abbreviation | Meaning | Particle |
|---|---|---|
| EPIST | Epistemic possibility | pos |
| DEON | Deontic necessity | deb |
| VOL | Volitional | vol |
| ADVIS | Advisability | sel |
| NEG | Verbal negation | nul |
| SENT.NEG | Sentential negation | nik |
| Abbreviation | Meaning | Form |
|---|---|---|
| DEF | Definite determiner | tal |
| INDEF | Indefinite determiner | hal |
| PROX | Proximal demonstrative | nal |
| DIST.DEM | Distal demonstrative | zal |
| TOP | Topic marker | tev |
| SUBJ | Subject case marker | sav |
| OBJ | Direct object case marker | dob |
| IO | Indirect object marker | par |
| CE | Clause end | lev |
| COMP | Complementiser | gav |
| COND | Conditional | sif |
| CONSQ | Consequent | dan |
| REL | Relative clause marker | taz-CLASS |
| Abbreviation | Meaning | Form |
|---|---|---|
| CMP | Comparative | pi- … -al/-il |
| SUP | Superlative | su- … -al/-il |
| ADJ | Adjective | ROOT + -al |
| ADV | Adverb | ROOT + -il |
| Abbreviation | Meaning | Particle |
|---|---|---|
| EV.WIT | Evidential: witnessed | tid |
| EV.REP | Evidential: reported/heard | tob |
| EV.INF | Evidential: inferred | ged |
| EV.GEN | Evidential: generally accepted | set |
| Abbreviation | Meaning | Suffix |
|---|---|---|
| INTR | Intransitive verb | -an |
| TRANS | Transitive verb | -in |
| DITR | Ditransitive verb | -on |
This glossary will be updated with each grammar version. If a term is used in any documentation file and is absent here, it should be added before the document is considered complete.