Very much under construction

Morphology

An overview of word formation.
Nova has very few of what are traditionally recognized as words. The only ones that clearly fall into this group are the integers (discussed below) which number less than 150. Nova builds new 'words' on the fly, drawing from its total of less than 1000 morphemes. It is not a polysynthetic language and should not be confused with one. Rather, it is very similar to what Whorf (1946:392) proposed as oligosynthetic. There are conventions that approach 'wordness' but they may be modified quickly and easily by the insertion of qualifiers, numbers, etc. And these word-like units have clear and distinct characteristics. There are true lexical classes corresponding, albeit roughly, to our nouns, verbs, etc.

Morpheme Classes

Nova has slightly fewer than 1000 morphemes, all of which may be broadly classified into 3 groups; Incohates, Integers, and Inflections.
Incohates are the basic building blocks of Eventives (more about which below). They have the essential quality of being unable to stand alone in a word. They must always be compounded, either with another incohate or with an integer. A single incohate cannot appear with inflections as the only other attached morphemes.
Integers can appear without any other attached morphemes, with inflections as the only attached morphemes, or as part of a root for verbs, nouns, etc. Integers include articles, numerals, pronouns, modals, space relators, syntactics, and cyclicals.
Inflections can never stand alone. They must always occur attached to a root or integer. Among the inflections are aspects, nominal cases, assertions, intensity, etc.

Lexeme Types

Lexemes (a better term than 'words' although both will appear in this work) are made from these morphemes and fall broadly into two categories; Eventives and Non-Eventives.

Eventives are those things in the universe that are transient and transient here is taken in the broadest sense. The wink-of-an-eye and the Rocky Mountains are both eventives. Eventives are marked in Nova by the presence, usually but not always obligatory, of aspect. There are 7 types of Eventives; verbals, statives, injunctives, nominals, pronominals, cyclicals, and locators. They are differentiated by duration.

Verbal concepts
would include 'speak', 'blink', 'fall'
Stative concepts
would include 'fist', 'cloud', colors, scents, qualities, many abstract nouns (especially those of emotion)
Injunctive concepts
would include commands, wishes, warnings
Nominal concepts
would include animals, plants, manufactured items, political units, some abstract nouns (not those of emotion)
Pronominal concepts
would include 'I', 'you', 'he, she or it', etc.
Cyclical concepts
would include recurring events or temporal periods, 'year', 'day', 'estrus', 'night', 'breakfast'
Locator concepts
would include place names considered as places (i.e.,not as political units), mountains, rivers, the sky

Non-Eventives are for the most part, words that clarify eventives by specifying number, motion, direction, temporal or space relations, and syntactic relations. These are taken up in more depth on the pages devoted to integers.

Eventive Lexico-Morphology

Nova routinely forms new eventive words on the fly and modifies others as well. All verbal, stative, injunctive, and nominal eventives necessarily consists of 2 or more incohate and/or integer morphemes. Most locator and cyclical eventives are also polymorphemic and it common for pronominals as well but there are common exceptions (these classes are discussed on the Inflected Integers Page). The morpheme combinations describe the event, rarely minutely, but in broad terms. Reduplication is not allowed, i.e., any given morpheme may appear in a root only one time.
Even where a more or less standard term exists it is common, when modified, for the root to be stripped down somewhat and the exact meaning to be derived from the context.
The order of elements is relatively free. The standard rule of thumb is that the dominant theme of a notion is the first but this is not ironclad. Quality, color and scent terms tend to be root-final or at least not root-initial. This reflects the relative rarity of independent 'adjectives' (statives in Nova). Occasionally, near synonyms are distinguished by morpheme order.
Sometimes, morpheme ordering is purely aesthetic. Nowans tend not to like to have too much alliteration in the root and may break the order up to avoid this.

Verbal and stative eventives routinely incorporate adverbial and instrumental morphemes directly into the root. These may amplify or reiterate the basic meaning.

Some Special Kinds of Eventives

Several kinds of eventives have special morphological processes. These include the following; Smell/Scent terms, Color terms, Qualities, and Kinship terms. The first three are, in their full forms, treated as Statives, otherwise as simple derivational incohates. The last is a Nominal.

Smell/Scent Terms
Nowans have a better sense of smell than Homo sapiens and it is reflected in their ability to name and describe languages. As with other Qualities, simple forms may be incorporated directly into an eventive;
More complete forms take the form of statives, usually accompanied by a qualifying nominal.
In its fullest form, a Nova scent term has at least two elements BASIC SCENT-aesthetic judgement. Multiple basic scents can be used but it is very rare to use multiple aesthetic judgements.
Basic Scent Terms
Aesthetic Terms

Color Terms

Color Terms
In its fullest form, a Nova color term is a stative with at least a three component root; BASIC COLOR/vividness/saturation. Too more accurately denote shades of color, multiple basic color terms may be used but only one vividness or saturation marker is allowed. When used as an adjective, it can be incorporated into the nominal root, but normally is a free standing stative.

Where only casual indication of color is required, basic color terms are incorporated into nominal roots, usually as the final element before inflections.


Basic color terms
Vividness color terms
Saturation color terms

Kinship terms

Nowan kinship terms reflect an analysis of relative age, lineage and gender. The order of composition is lineage- generation-gender-social relationship. It should be remembered that the Nowa are matrilineal and children are born into the clan of their mother. The maternal uncle will fulfill many of the roles filled by fathers in our culture.
Basic Nova kinship incohates;
Some examples;

Qualities and Degrees

Quality morphemes are those which specify specific attributes. Most Qualities in Nova reflect a range rather than a specific point of reference. The specific point is supplied by a seperate degree incohate. Here are some examples of qualities;
Morphicon entries for qualities are usually shown in just this way and the particular examples are always shown with the range of meanings in these orders.

Degrees may be thought of as specifying the exact point on the line of meaning that is being specified. Quality morphemes which are incorporated directly into the root are assumed to have a basically positive degree but those that are part of an independent eventive or which are used other than positively must have a degree marker.
When used with other than Quality morphemes, degrees have meanings similar to anti-, un-, super-, hyper-, etc. in English. Here is a complete list of Degrees;

Derivational Incohates

Derivational morphemes are a special set of Incohates. These never occur as the first morpheme of a root. They are generally associated with a particular type of eventive though some have a broader range.

The first set are the Affectives which are used to express various emotions directed at people and things.


Causation is indicated by one of the 6 following morphemes;

Instrumentals are p rimarily used to form verbs and statives. They all carry the idea of 'doing with/by means of X'.

Locator derivatives are used to form Locators logically enough.

Nominal derivatives are primarily used to form new nominals although Nova being the way it is, they can quickly be changed into verbs or statives.

Stative/verb derivatives are used to form new roots that are most often verbs or statives. Like Nominal Derivatives though, a certain flexibility is built into them.


Back to the Nova Page
Back to my home page
Email me
© 2001 Brad Coon

Revised August 29, 2001

URL:www.geocities.com/nowapan
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1