Compact event notation

From The Toaq Wiki
Revision as of 17:44, 20 December 2023 by Laqme (talk | contribs) (verbs)

When following Toaq's semantics algorithm, a certain pattern shows up often: an existential quantification of an event, combined with its aspect and verb participant information. For example, Luı heaqdo jí súq máq … becomes

There is an event e, whose runtime precedes the implicit tense t, and which is an event of heaqdo-ing súq máq in world w, and whose agent is , (and which satisfies P(e).)

Kuna supports generating a compact notation for this:

It works as follows:

  1. When an existential quantifier is followed by a Toaq verb, it asserts the existence of an event of that verb.
  2. The event variable being bound is given by the following superscript.
  3. The world variable the event is in is given by the following subscript.
  4. The aspect information is given underneath the verb. If it starts with a relational operator it abbreviates .
  5. The participants are listed in parentheses. If there is an agent, it's separated from the non-agent participants by a semicolon.
  6. Optionally, a final dot announces the rest of the formula in which is bound.

There are some variants of the notation, depending on the presence of an agent, of non-agent participants, and of a subsequent statement :

Compact event notation
Compact notation Expanded notation


Example

The full denotation of Pu tao jí hóq da (i.e. Ruaq jí ꝡä pu tao jí hóq ka) is:

Using compact notation, it becomes a bit less daunting: