Good evening, afternoon, or morning to you, people of r/conlangs. Today's Saturday, and that means it's time for another typological paper! Once again, there will be some prompts for you to discuss in the comments.
Paraguayan Guaraní and the typology of free affix order (Dąbkowski)
In this paper submitted by u/PyrolatrousCoagulate, Dąbkowski presents a typology of free affix order, and discusses how it is present in Paraguayan Guaraní. Free affix order (FAO) describes the phenomenon in which affixes may change their position freely without any modification in meaning. FAO contrasts with scopal and templatic affix order. In scopal affix order, affixes may change their order, but then this also changes the semantics of the whole word. In templatic affix order, the order of affixes is invariant, but their scope may vary. It is this threefold distinction that is probably the most interesting to us conlangers. Now onto the prompts:
- Which one of the three affix order types is present in your language? Is there another one that is not described in the paper?
- Which affixes are affected by this? E.g. can only valency-modifying affixes be scopal?
- How does FAO or other affix order types interact with other parts of your language's morphology?
Remember to try to comment on other people's languages
Submit your papers here!
So, that's about it for this week's edition. See you next Saturday, and happy conlanging!