Referentials

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0 Preface 1 Morphophonology 2 Formatives [I] 3 Formatives [II] 4 Referentials 5 Formatives [III] 6 Adjuncts 7 Special Constructions 8 Lexico-Semantics

4.0: Referentials

Referentials function similarly to pronouns in natural languages, but are much more expansive in function.

The most basic referential form is C₁ ... + V_C1, where C₁ indicates the party(ies) being referenced and V_C1 indicates the case of the referential (identical in form to formatives).

4.1: Parties

A party, in the context of a referential, indicates the entity being referenced.

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4.1.1: Personal Referents

Personal referents are standard pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, they) that identify the speaker (1st), the listener (2nd), or a relevant external entity (3rd). Furthermore, each C₁ value can be declined to a specific "effect", or whether the occurrence described in the surrounding sentence is beneficial (BEN) or detrimental (DET) to the party at hand*.

*The notion of Effect will be further explained in § 5.2.2.

The C₁ values for personal referents are as follows:

Referent	Abbr.	Effect			English Translation
Referent	Abbr.	NEU	BEN	DET	English Translation
Monadic Speaker	1m	l	r	ř	I, me
Monadic Addressee	2m	s	š	ž	You (sg.)
Polyadic Addressee	2p	n	t	d	You (pl.); "Y'all"
Monadic Animate 3^rd	ma	m	p	b	he/she/they
Polyadic Animate 3^rd	pa	ň	k	g	they
Monadic Inanimate 3^rd	mi	z	ţ	d	it / that (thing)
Polyadic Inanimate 3^rd	pi	ż	f	v	those (things)
Mixed Animate + Inanimate 3^rd	Mx	c	č	j	he/she/they + it/those

Up to three personal referents (one per party) may be combined into one “referent complex”, which is then inflected with case to form the final referential.

Urhwadwó: S3-“residency”-PRX.N-OBS

eňsxädešpi'a: S2-“submarine”-VSR₁/3:'yellow'-LOC

škro.: [2m.BEN+pa.BEN+1m.BEN]-ERG

We all live in a yellow submarine.

If the resulting referent complex is phonotactically impermissible, it may be split up with an epenthetic ë.

Etļelarjiktú: S2-“activate”-CSV-DLB₁/1-TPP₁/4:'just past'-INF

řëbže: [1m.DET+ma.DET+2m.DET]-ABS

ešgäţoigde: S2-“capture”-MDS-MDF₂/7:'enabling device'-ABS

I infer that we just triggered a bunch of traps.

4.1.2: Reduplicative and Obviative Referents

4.1.3: The Provisional Referential

4.1.4: Perspective (for referentials)

4.2: Additional Referential Structures

The basic referential configuration C₁ + V_C1 can be further expanded into two, more advanced referential structures.

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4.2.1: Dual-Referent Referential

If there is more than one party in a referential, each with a distinct case, they may be synthesized with a dual–referent referential.

The structure of a dual–referent referential is identical to a single–referent referential without specification (i.e., only case), only that another, reversed referential (V_C2 + C₂) is appended after the first, parsed with a -w- or -y-, as follows:

C₁... + V_C1 + w/y + V_C2 + (C₂ ...)

4.2.2: Combination Referential