Ancient Kaelic Hates Pronouns
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aka "Why don't any of my sentences have nouns?"
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 23 Jun 2020, 03:09.
[comments] akaelsyntaxpronouns
One of the features of Ancient Kaelic is its proclivity to drop grammatical nouns that are implied.
If a sentence begins with "kore" without any adjective modification, "kore" will most likely be dropped in most colloquial contexts.
Example:
"I worked the farm yesterday" = Bunama pan petamenewan.; literally, "Farmed yesterday."
If you find yourself using "kore" without modification in most speech, you will come off as highly formal. This form is generally reserved for contracts and speeches.
Exception: Imperative
Any subject-less verb in imperative mood is implied to use the subject "you." For example, "Tato nu" means "Walk left," which has the implied subject of "you."
A bit more contextual, objects can also be implied based on context.
For example, if a conversation is based around a mountain, you can say "Tula!" to mean "I climbed it!" Based on the context, the subject (I/kore) is implied, meaning the object can also be implied to be the topic of the conversation.
As a rule of thumb, if you can use "it/they/them/he/him/she/her" in a place where "I/me" wouldn't make sense, dropping the subject/object would work.
If you established a subject and object earier in the conversation or paragragh, these parts of speech will be implied if you drop them in future sentences.
Example:
Hale nae arum li-mol li-sheol. Mame.
Translation: "I have two big, white dogs. I love them."
Because of this rule in particular, it is customary to get adjectives out the first time described. If el-“different adjective” is used in a later sentence, that is assumed to be describing a different person or thing.
"lo'" in particular is often used with implied nouns. Grammatically, "lo'" requires a following noun to indicate the possessor of the preceding noun, but this is not always the case. If the possessor can be inferred from context (usually the nearest noun not directly modified), it will drop, leaving the "lo" on its own.
Example:
Jan nima pan petamenewan sae mama-yen lo.
Translation: "Jan arrived yesterday with his grandmother."
As a rule of thumb, if you can use "his," "her," "its," or "their," you're probably safe to drop any pronouns after "lo"
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