Basic syntactical concepts

Valency changes

Medzorian verbs allow for changes in valency. Generally, a verb describing actions can be used with any of the three grammaticalized valencies of Medzor: 0 (avalent), 1 (intransitive) and 2 (transitive). Verbs describing states, feelings etc. can be limited in valency changes or undergo a big meaning shift with the valency change.

There is usually a natural valency of a verb, which is used in normal cases. The medzor verb arguments are the subject and the direct object. An indirect object is generally not counted among the main arguments of the verb.

Often, changes in valency are connected with changes in the dynamics category.

Decrease of valency

A decrease in valency causes an argument to be dropped or turned another type of argument.

• Mevne mürmü čevne. – A man hunts a rabbit.

This is a dynamic sentence (the patient does change in the sense, that it must run from the man) with valency 2. We can descrease the valency and delete one of the arguments:

• Mevne čevow. – A man hunts.

Here the dynamic category expresses that the man is active in the hunting.

• Mürü čefša. – A rabbit is hunted.

The static category express that the rabbit is the patient of the hunting, i.e. the meaning is turned to passive. Notice the change mürmü → mürü, as the rabbit is promoted to the subject of the sentence.

• Mevne čefša. – A man is hunted.

• Čevdä. – *It is hunted. (Hunting takes place.)

• Egredä. – *It is drunk.

The last sentence is avalent (valency = 0). The subject of this sentence is not expressed. It is similar to the use of spanish “se” to express a general subject or the german “Es wird + past participle”: se bebe, es wird getrunken. Often, this is used with a time/place adverbial.

• Awneř egreda. – *In this place people drink. („people“ as a general, unexpressed subject).

Increase of valency

If we increase the valency of a verb with a natural lower valency, the result are generally the opposites of the descreases in valency described above. The case of a static intransitive sentence being turned to dynamic transitive has usually the causative meaning “cause something to happen” (the subject of the intransitive is turned object of the transitive).

• Ezro šödvo. – The knife falls.

• Ewmá ezromü šödnö. – The man drops the knife.

Dynamics

The semantics of the dynamics category in a sentence depends on the valency of the verb and can be summarized as follows:

In an intransitive sentence (valency = 1):

• static: the subject is an experiencer – something is happening to the subject or it’s a state of the subject: Mevne vodvo. – A man sleeps.

• dynamic: the subject is an agent – i.e. the subject triggers an actions: Mevne vârow. – A man reads.

In a transitive sentence (valency = 2):

• static: the patient (object) is not changed by the verb: Mevne černka vâřa. – A man reads a book.

• dynamic: the patient (object) is changed by the verb, this change can also be that the object is made to do something „unwillingly“: Mevne černmü lörlönö. – A man writes a book.

In the avalent sentences the dynamics play no role. The dynamics category also triggers verb agreement in modern medzor.

Gender agreements

The following table shows all agreement suffixes used in MM (apart from the zero suffix, which is used on fronted components). (For any student of Medzor, this is the most important table to learn).

subject gnd.	valency	dynamics	subject	object	verb
	avalent				dä
dragon	intransitive	static	že		vo
"	"	dynamic	že		ow
"	transitive	static	že	ka	ša
"	"	dynamic	že	mü	ne
flower	intransitive	static	li		še
"	"	dynamic	li		lo
"	transitive	static	li	ro	al
"	"	dynamic	li	al	at
wolf	intransitive	static	že		vo
"	"	dynamic	la		šö
"	transitive	static	la	mü	če
"	"	dynamic	že	mü	ne

If the subject is plural and describes a group of mixed genders, any of the represented genders can be used for the agreement.

Neutral word order

Medzor has a strict SOV word order, whereas the verb is always the last in the clause. As such, the verb marks the end of a clause and if there is anything following it in a sentence, then it is another clause. The subject can be preceded only by verbal particles and topicalized clause members. If the subject or the object are pronominal and context describes them sufficiently, then they can be missing.

• Adjectives and adjectival phrases follow the nouns they modify.

• Nominal phrases which are not direct objects and adverbial phrases are placed after the direct object phrase. In this group, the order of the phrases is not set and can be chosen freely by the speaker.

Note Medzor prefers simple short sentences interconnected with anaphora instead of long nominal or adverbial phrases, when possible:

Uftösöc riznevi ifkakiř möktövü läňviřo. The castle is old in the big icy mountains.

This sentence is better rendered as:

Ifkak möktövü läňvika uftösöc riznevi žeřo. (Note these are two phrases with zero-verb.)

Please note the gender resolves the possible ambiguity of the relative anaphora in this case (ifkak is dragon, uftösöc is flower gender).

Also note in the first sentence, the adjective riznevi is in predicative position. In attributive position the sentence would have looked as follows:

Uftösöc riznevili ifkakiř möktövü läňviřo. The old castle is in the big icy mountains.

In this case there are two adjectival phrases, one attributive and one predicative, which have different markings.

Nominal conjunction and alternative

If in a sentence, there are two nouns or adjectives in the same role, their relation is understood to be conjunctive by default ("and"). If it is disjunctive, the alternative marker bes is added to the second noun (this suffix is not duplicated on an adjectival phrase). In both cases, if the nouns are the subject, the verb is in plural and the agreement is governed by the first noun. Also, the second noun/adjective has to include the nominative suffix, governed by the gender of the first noun.

Serka nägrka biřa. He has a sword and a knife.

Serka nägrekabes biřa. He has a sword or a knife.

Päk ládlibes örnro nedžiral. The monster or the wolf will kill me.

Lát päglabes örnmü nedžirne. The wolf or the wolf will kill me.

Redreka žördžekabes. He is wise or dumb.

Verbal relations

To express what the relation of the verb in a clause is to other clauses in a sentences, the following suffixes are used (placed after the agreement suffix of a verb):

ko	manner
to	despite
ga	condition
de/dö	reason
ma	purpose
bes	alternative (or)
sta	consequence

For example a conditional sentence can be formed the following way:

• Veka vädvoga téša. - If you don't fall asleep, you will know it.

In conjunction with the irrealis prefix, this turns into an irreal condition:

• Zveveka vädvoga téša. - If you had not fallen asleep, you would have known it.

If there are more verbs in a sentence and no relation marker, a "combination" is the default relation, i.e., as if there were the conjunction "and". The relation marker bes expresses english "or":

• Difsevo čerhvo. He prepares himself and he fails.

• Difsevoto čerhvo. He prepares himself but he fails.

• Ve difsevo čerhvosta. He does not prepare himself and thus, he fails.

• Ve difsevodö čerhvo. He fails because he doesn't prepare himself.

• Ve difsevo čerhvoma. He doesn't prepare himself in order to fail.

• Ve difsevoga čerhvo. If he doesn't prepare himself, he fails.

• Difsevo čerhvobös. He prepares himself/otherwise he fails.

• Difsevoga ve čerhvosta. He won't fail if and only if he prepares himself.

Relation marking turns a verb into the so-called relative verb. There are other types of relative verbs as well, see more on that in a dedicated article about relative anaphora.

More syntactical topics

The following topics are explained in other articles:

• How to form copula sentences - see copula sentences.

• How to highlight a topic - see topicalization.

• How to build compound sentences - see anaphora.

• How to form questions - see verbal particles, interrogative anaphora and interrogative pronouns.

• How to use adjective, adjectival phrases and numerals - see the article on adjectives and numerals.