Ancient Figo syntax

Main article: Ancient Figo

This page gives an extensive description of ancient Figo syntactical features.

Main clause and word order

Ancient Figo is an almost strictly SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) language.

līruli soba līločeš 
the man sees the dog

The quite rich case system allows every other possible word order, but most of them prove to be very marked and infrequently used. The only word order with a clear role and a frequent usage is OSV (Object-Subject-Verbs), which marks the so-called passive construction.

soba līruli līločeš
the dog is seen by the man

The other elements in the sentence are usually placed in the order “place-manner-cause-time”, although they are basically freer than the main elements. An object in the dative case, when conveying the indirect object, tends to be placed before the direct object of the sentence.

A peculiar feature is the verbal infinitival agreement: when infinitival forms, as nominal forms of the verbs, take a direct object, are regarded as an expression of belonging, and the direct object is declined in the genitive case.

sobaɕu līločem īsow
I do not see the dog.

The frequency of this feature, however, is already declining in the classical period, when the infinitival forms are used in a verbal costruction (as, for example, with modal verbs). The infinitival agreement is still widely used up to the later classical period when these forms are used in a nominal construction.

Moreover, as it can been seen in the example above, when an infinitival form is governed by a modal verb or by the negative verb īsem, the infinitive is always placed before the conjugated modal form.

Nouns

The noun cluster is formed by a noun, carrying the main meaning, and by other noun-type forms, namely adjectives, which specify this meaning or add other meanings to the main noun. Inside of a noun cluster, the noun can be replaced by a pronoun.

The noun usually closes the noun cluster, being preceded by every other specifying form. Thus, other elements conveying possession and belonging are always placed before the noun, as well as every attributive adjective.

līruɕu sōnu
the man’s house

oltuɕu lilā
my hand

jōbā ōna 
the young woman

The role of the noun cluster in the sentence and its number are marked by case and number endings. These endings mark also other adjectival elements inside the noun cluster, resulting this in the process called nominal agreement.

Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree in case and number with the noun they specify. Other elements, which convey possession or belonging do not agree with the main nominal form.

jōbāli līruli sōnohe imēheš
the young man is going home

oltuɕunu sōnu
our house

jōbāj ōnaj
the two young women

ōnanu jōbānu ɛnešon
the women are young

The agreement among nouns and adjectives is not a universal phenomenon. Indefinite adjectives, indeed, usually do not agree with the nominal form, neither in case nor in number.

The grammar role of noun clusters can be further specified by postpositions, which are placed after the cluster. Thus, it can be stated that the noun cluster can be closed by a postposition.

sōnuhe ūm imēhow
I am going inside the house

The cases

The grammatical role of the noun cluster in a sentence is conveyed by some endings. These endings are bound to grammatical cases, with usually well-defined roles.

The cases in ancient Figo language are 7:

• Agentive
• Passive
• Genitive
• Dative
• Causative
• Instrumental
• Locative

The grammatical roles and all possible differences in usage among similar cases are enlisted below:

The active-stative alignment

The case system of Ancient Figo language is based on a morphological alignment called agentive-stative type (also called in Piti philological studies the agentive-passive alignment). This kind of alignment is essential different from the nominative-accusative alignment, which is widespread among most European languages, and from the even rarer ergative-absolutive alignment.

In an agentive-stative alignment the choice of the case relies on the intrinsic ability of the subject to be an active agent in the sentence or not. Unlike the ergative-absolutive alignment, subjects of an intransitive verb can also be agentive subjects, if the action is performed with a certain degree of animacy or intentionality. This usually also depends on the semantic nature of the verb itself. Let’s see two examples:

• to jump: this verb is considered as grammatically intransitive, but the described action involves an activity and a will from the subject. Thus, the alignment selects the agentive case for such subjects.
• to fall: this verb is considered as grammatically intransitive, but the described action involves no active engagement or no active will from the subject. It is more regarded as an incidental event, even if it implies some kind of motion. Thus, the alignment selects the passive case for such subjects.

The system selects only the passive case for direct objects of transitive verbs. Potential confusion is avoided, as the agentive case and the passive case cannot be selected for two kinds of elements which may be in the same sentence.

The general usage rule for these cases is:

• Subject of a transitive verb: agentive case
• Active subject of an intransitive verb: agentive case
• Inactive subject of an intransitive verb: passive case
• Direct object of a transitive verb: passive case

Examples:

sobaliAGEN līruPASS ňomīšeš
the dog is biting the man
(sobali is the subject of the transitive verb ňomīšem and is declined in the agentive case, while līru is the object of the verb and it is declined in the passive case)

sobaliAGEN lūčešeš
the dog is running away
(sobali is the subject of the intransitive verb lūčešem, for which it is an active subject. As such, it intentionally and actively performs the action, and it is declined in the agentive case)

sobaPASS šēhoneš
the dog is sleeping
(soba is the subject of the intransitive verb šēhonem, for which it is an unactive subject. As such, it does not intentionally and actively perform the action, and it is declined in the passive case)

The rules of this system are interlaced with the class system. Class II nouns cannot be declined in the agentive case at all. Sentences in which these elements might be transitive or active subject are usually differently arrange, as such nouns cannot be in the agentive case:

the storm spoiled the harvest → the harvest spoiled because of the storm
umocōda šuməxu ōsīčeš

However, some natural entities can be perceived as animate, as having their own will, like čiš, water, ošō, wind, and they may optionally be regarded as class I nouns. In such cases these nouns can be active subjects of transitive verbs and be declined in the agentive case.