Senu Yivokuchi

Grammar \ Syntax

Senu Yivokuchi is markedly right-branching. This means that modifiers, such as adjectives or adverbs, tend to be placed after their modified words (or nuclei), such as nouns or verbs. English, despite being rather right-branching too, places adjectives and possessives before nouns; Romance languages usually place them afterwards; and Japanese is so left-branching that it places even subordinate sentences before their nuclei.

Noun-based constructions

Nouns are almost invariably followed by all their modifiers. Adjectives follow nouns, as well as demonstratives, subordinate sentences, and case-marked modifiers. When a noun modifies another noun (forming a compound or a construct-state chain), the modifier also goes after the nucleus.

chod dirdi
wave gray-DEF
'the gray wave'

ciekheb sa
cloudy_sky that
'that cloudy sky'

bri ye
head GEN-1s
'my head'

ka je zokalu wao
man who write-PST this_thing
'the man who wrote this'

Note that definiteness is not marked on the nucleus but on the modifier; demonstratives (including the relative pronouns which start the subordinate clauses) are considered inherently definite, as well as most case-marked phrases. In practical terms, this means that when a noun is followed by one or more adjectives, only the (last) adjective is marked as definite or indefinite.

For literary effect, some adjectives may go before the noun, but in common speech this is only done for emphasis, and it is then marked with the emphatic prefix e-. In this case, both the noun and the adjective are marked for definiteness:

edroach kach
MPH-old-DEF man-DEF
'the OLD man'

Numerals also follow the rest of the noun phrase in many cases, but they can be placed before it, and they don't need an emphasis mark. In certain constructions the numeral must go first, as for example when they represent a group (cf sase kuwa 'two trees, a pair of trees' vs. ku sase 'two trees')

Sentence-level word order

While the verb is the nucleus of the sentence, the language uses the verb as a separator between subject and object, so the usual order is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO). The subject may be moved after the verb (VSO), especially when it is only one word. The VS order also appears sometimes when the verb is intransitive. Many speakers employ the VS(O) pattern for emphasis on the verbal action. And finally, some of the discourse verbs (like mat 'say'), as in other languages, take the OVS order.

Sentences using a copula instead of a proper verb are different. The copulas tend to prefer shorter noun phrases to attach to, notably pronouns, and emphasis plays an important role too. Refer to the section about copulas for examples.

Interrogative sentences may leave the interrogative word in place, but it is far more common to have it fronted, as in English. When the interrogative word is a direct object, a predicate or an oblique complement, it is usually resumed in place by the enclitic particle -n.

Je biksave negi gamva ge?
je  biksav-e neg-i   gamva ge
who fill-PRS cup-DEF again ALL+1s
"Who will fill the cup for me again?"

Sukh osu guoch linde?
sukh osu    guo   -ch  li -n  -de
shape which future-DEF COM-OBJ-COP
"What shape is the future?"

O jhorun?
o    jhar-u  -n
what find-PST-OBJ
"What did you find?"

Maro araukhe yin vewo?
maro ar- aukh-e   yi -n   vewo
when CNT-live-PRS GEN-OBJ here
"Since when are you living here?"