Conlanging can be overwhelming for even the most experienced conlangers—especially in the beginning stages of a new project when swirling swarms of ideas create a flurry of possibilities. I break the process down into daily prompts for a yearlong experience. One year, one conlang. Join me in making this a Conlang Year!
Goal: Make a plan for a valency-increasing strategy Note: Clearly list any verbs or lexical sources you need for your strategy. Tip: Focus first on one strategy before tackling more. Work focus: Organize/Plan/Structure Now that you have brainstormed ideas for valency-increasing strategies (such as a causative form), use today to make concrete plans for what…
Goal: Brainstorm ideas for valency-increasing strategies Note: While passives decrease valency, causatives increase the valency of a verb. Tip: This may require creating a clausal construction. Work focus: Learn/Brainstorm/Try Today’s goal is to start generating ideas for how you might handle valency-increasing strategies, such as the causative. A causative adds an argument to a verb’s…
Goal: Formalize the passive strategy in your document Note: You may need to add the passive inflection to the head word forms of a verb. Tip: Structure your document so you can easily see examples. Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share Incorporate the example sentences you’ve created to showcase your language’s (anti)passive inflections (or other strategy) into your…
Goal: Create examples of passive (or similar) structures Note: Show a variety of combinations with other inflections. Tip: Include both transitive and ditransitive verb examples. Work focus: Create/Make/List Use today to create several example sentences to showcase your passive (or antipassive) strategy. It’s helpful to show these examples in active ~ passive pairs to show…
Goal: Plan your strategy for (anti)passivization Note: Decide how to handle situations with an unknown or absent primary argument. Tip: Not all languages have a specific passive inflection. Work focus: Organize/Plan/Structure Now that you have explored options for how the (anti)passive can be formed, today’s focus is on planning out your strategy. You don’t need…
The main areas of focus this week are wrapping up work on passive (or antipassive) strategies and then exploring and creating strategies for a causative. In other words, it’s a week of valency-shifting!
Goal: Explore options for active/passive distinctions Note: Find a strategy that is appropriate for your syntactic alignment. Tip: The focus here is on a valency-reduction strategy. Work focus: Learn/Brainstorm/Try Another type of inflection that can occur with verbs is passivization. This inflection is special, though, because it actually changes the valency of a transitive verb…
Goal: Create new words with their full dictionary entries Note: Make sure all lexical sources made it into the dictionary, too. Tip: Find a rhythm that works to create and document! Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share Now that you’ve expanded your dictionary entries for verbs, spend the day creating some new verbs and entering their information into…
Goal: Comb through dictionary entries to check for accuracy Note: Continue updating any verb inflections you need to add. Tip: Write up a section on how entries are formatted. Work focus: Organize/Plan/Structure It’s another organization kind of day, with a continued goal of updating dictionary entries and checking to make sure all the entries are…
Goal: Review verb inflections to add in dictionary entries Note: Focus especially on any forms that are irregular or not fully predictable. Tip: It can be helpful even if the forms are rather predictable. Work focus: Organize/Plan/Structure You’ve written up information about verb inflections and entered verbs into the dictionary, but today’s focus is a…
