Could you share me your conlang documentation outline?

[matsu]

Hi all, I'm working on my first in-depth conlang -- well really, the first conlang I've given any real thought to. Could you share with me the outline you have for the documentation you've done on it? I'm looking for better ways to organise my information. I'm thining about sharing the actual document I have too, but it's very long (30+ pages) so I'm worried about readers. This is my outline so far:

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1.	Introduction
	1.1.	Grammar overview
2.	Orthography
	2.1.	Alphabet
	2.2.	Braille
3.	Phonology
	3.1.	Consonants
	3.2.	Vowels
	3.3.	Diphthongs
4.	Phonotactics
	4.1.	Syllable structures
	4.2.	Length
	4.3.	Stress
5.	Grammar
	5.1.	Sentence structure
	5.2.	Word classification
	5.3.	Numbers
		5.3.1.	Cardinal numbers
		5.3.2.	Ordinal numbers
		5.3.3.	Nominal numbers
	5.4.	Nouns and postpositions
		5.4.1.	Number
		5.4.2.	Postpositions and case markers
			5.4.2.1.	Core cases
			5.4.2.2.	Postpositions
		5.4.3.	Nominal affixes
	5.5.	Pronouns
		5.5.1.	Personal pronouns
		5.5.2.	Demonstrative and quantifying determiners
		5.5.3.	Extended quantifier pronouns and adjectives
		5.5.4.	Reciprocal pronouns
		5.5.5.	Reflexive pronouns
	5.6.	Verbs and modal particles
		5.6.1.	Declensions
		5.6.2.	Verbal lexical modification
			5.6.2.1.	Prefixes: Separable
			5.6.2.2.	Prefixes: Inseparable
			5.6.2.3.	Suffixes
		5.6.3.	Moods
		5.6.4.	Voices
		5.6.5.	Verbal anaphor
	5.7.	Adjectives
		5.7.1.	Comparative and superlative formation
		5.7.2.	Use as verbs
	5.8.	Adverbs
		5.8.1.	Comparative and superlative formation
		5.8.2.	Temporality
	5.9.	Conjunctions
		5.9.1.	Coordinating conjunctions
		5.9.2.	Subordinating conjunctions
		5.9.3.	Correlative conjunctions
	5.10.	Particles
6.	Basic phrases
7.	Appendices
	7.1.	Abbreviations
	7.2.	Terminology
	7.3.	Selected translations
 

[Wattmann]

Don't worry about length - a good grammar weighs in at over 200 pages, bottom.

[Salmoneus]

And nobody will read it anyway.


I think the structure of the presentation has to reflect the structure of the language, to make sure you've included everything that you need in a coherent way. For instance, my conlang has relatively little morphology and a whole heap of syntax, so I have morphology sections that are just lists of affixes and where they go (and sometimes not even that - verbal/possessive affixes will have their own appendix), and usage is all dealt with in the syntax sections. Whereas you seem not to have anything on syntax beyond a single 'sentence structure' section.

[matsu]

And nobody will read it anyway.


I think the structure of the presentation has to reflect the structure of the language, to make sure you've included everything that you need in a coherent way. For instance, my conlang has relatively little morphology and a whole heap of syntax, so I have morphology sections that are just lists of affixes and where they go (and sometimes not even that - verbal/possessive affixes will have their own appendix), and usage is all dealt with in the syntax sections. Whereas you seem not to have anything on syntax beyond a single 'sentence structure' section.

It's okay; the heavy document is really for me. I'd love to share it, but I'd undoubtedly condense it a lot first. My conlang is pretty run of the mill, but it's SOV, head-final and has very heavy inflectional morphologies.

How have you approached your syntax? Mine has only 'sentence structure' because I haven't written down much yet of what's in my head.

[Raluv]

The outline seems pretty good, though I would say that phonology and phonotactics are both part of the "grammar" of the language--not outside it. Phonetics on the other hand is outside the grammar of any language.

[clawgrip]

Phonology and phonotactics aren't grammar.

[Imralu]

Mine's quite language specific because the lexicon of Ahu doesn't distinguish nouns-verbs-adjectives-adverbs-prepositions ... so I couldn't really copy any of the other grammar structures I saw which talked all about the features of a noun phrase, verb phrase etc. The subject of a sentence can contain typically verby things like tense, aspect, mood, voice as well as typically nouny things like definiteness and quantity, adjectivy things like degree, comparison as well (the resulting English translation generally involves relative clauses)

Hi li boi das vun
PL.INDEF PRF SUP skilled hunt(er)
"ones who used to be the most skilled at hunting"

dxaru ué bo uóhan
most.COUNT.PL FUT want.to kill-OBL-1s
"most of those who will want to kill me"

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01 Introduction
  01.1 Terminology
  01.2 Language-Variation
  01.3 Note to Glossing
02 Phonology
03 Orthography
04 Word Classes
  04.1 Contentives
  04.2 Particles
  04.3 Interjections
05 Modification of Contentives
  05.1 Appositional Modification
  05.2 Attributive Modification
  05.3 Oblique Modification
06 Clause Structure
  06.1 Simple Clauses
  06.2 Subject Omission
  06.3 Clause Modification
  06.4 Fronted Constituents
  06.5 Predicate Stacking
07 Coordination
08 Subordination
09 Derivation
   Utilitative Infixes
10 Grammatical Functions
   Correlatives
   Definiteness
   Gender Specific Words
   Personal Proforms and Determiners
   Questions: Polar
   Relative Clauses
11 Examples
12 Lexicon

The unnumbered headings under 09 Derivation and 10 Grammatical Functions are not yet finished. They will be sorted alphabetically and will be added to over time, which is why I haven't numbered them. The 'grammatical functions' area is a spot where various things will be able to be looked up. Tense, for example, is not really handled anywhere else and will be shown there - words marking tense are simply contentives and are linked to other words by appositional modification, which you can read about in section 05.3.

[Tanni]

Congratulations for providing a Braille orthography.

[finlay]

Phonology and phonotactics aren't grammar.

I've seen it argued both ways.

[matsu]

Congratulations for providing a Braille orthography.

Thank you. My conlang functions as an auxlang in an alternative past-future, one which has an egalitarian society. As such, the blind community must be accommodated. It's generally very internationally standards-based. I am considering a small addendum on sign language, but those are very separate languages, and I do not know enough about sign language to attempt a sign language conlang though. However, it occurs to me that that is seldom done, so it may be a worthwhile project after I finish this.

[clawgrip]

Phonology and phonotactics aren't grammar.

I've seen it argued both ways.

Personally I think phonology and phonotactics belong to a third category distinct from either grammar or lexicon, but that all three are highly interconnected. But it sounds like there is no clear consensus. Anyway, not to derail the thread:

Here is my outline for Himmaswa:

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1. Introduction
2. Phonology
  2.1. Consonants
    2.1.1. Noteworthy Consonantal Allophones
  2.2. Vowels
    2.2.1. Basic Vowel Qualities
    2.2.2. Diphthongs and Triphthongs
    2.2.3. Phonation
    2.2.4. Full Vowel Listing
      2.2.4.1. Vowels Listed by Phonation Type
      2.2.4.2. Traditional Listing of Vowels
  2.3 Note on Romanization
  2.4. Phonotactics
      2.4.1. Onsets
      2.4.2. Nuclei
      2.4.3. Codas
  2.5. Stress
      2.5.1. Lexical Stress
      2.5.2. Prosodic Stress
      2.5.2. Stressed Vowel Pitch
3. Morphology
  3.1. Nouns
    3.1.1 Plurals
      3.1.1.1. Associative Plurals
    3.1.2. Pronouns
      3.1.2.1. Personal Pronouns
      3.1.2.2. Interrogative Pronouns
      3.1.2.3. Third Person Pronouns as Topic Markers
      3.1.2.4. Relative Pronouns
      3.1.2.5. Archaic or Dialectal Pronouns
    3.1.3. Demonstrative Constructions
      3.1.3.1. Locative Pronouns
      3.1.3.2. Demonstrative Adjectives
      3.1.3.2. Demonstrative Pronouns
  3.2. Verbs
    3.2.1. Dynamic Verbs
    3.2.2. Perfective Verbs
    3.2.3. Stative Verbs
    3.2.4. Semantic Similarities Between Verbs of Different Aspectual Classes
    3.2.5. The Copula
    3.2.6. Auxiliary Verbs
      3.2.6.1. Alignment Auxiliaries
      3.2.6.2. Perfect Auxiliaries
      3.2.6.3. Imperfect Auxiliaries
      3.2.6.4. Modal Auxiliaries
      3.2.6.5. Order of Auxiliaries	
    3.2.8. Transitivity
      3.2.8.1. Explicit Marking of Intransitive Verbs
      3.2.8.2. Explicit Marking of Transitive Verbs
    3.2.9. Verb Nominalization
    3.2.7. Pseudo-Prepositional Verbs
      3.2.7.??. (not yet organized)
  3.3. Conjunctions
    3.3.??. (not yet organized)
  3.4. Interjections and Sentence Final Particles
    3.4.1. Particles of Request
    3.4.2. Particles of Suggestion
    3.4.3. Particles of Affirmation
    3.4.4. Verb-Particle Relationships
4. Derivational Morphology
  4.1. Noun-Noun Compounds
  4.2. Noun-Verb Compounds
  4.3. Verb-Noun Compounds
  4.4. Serial Verb Compounds
  4.5. Reduplication
5. Syntax
  5.1. Standard Word Order
    5.1.1. Topic vs. Subject
      5.1.1.1. Topic Fronting
  5.2. Question forms
    5.2.1 Content Questions
    5.2.2 Polar Questions
  5.3. Comparatives & Superlatives
  5.4. Counting
    5.4.??. (not organized)
7.  Writing System
  7.1. Fkeuswa
    7.1.1. Semantic Primitives
    7.1.2. Semantic Radicals
    7.1.3. Phonetic Complements
    7.1.3.1. Onset Complements
    7.1.3.2. Onset-Nucleus Complements
    7.1.3.3. Morpheme Complements
    7.1.4 Simplification
    7.1.5. Typography
      7.1.5.1. Punctuation Marks
      7.1.5.2. Standard Paragraphing
  7.3. Fkeumgerswa
    7.3.1. Consonant Signs
    7.3.2. Vowel Signs
      7.3.2.1. Determination of Vowel Sound
    7.3.3. Consonant Subscripts
    7.3.4. Punctuation

[matsu]

Phonology and phonotactics aren't grammar.

I've seen it argued both ways.

Personally I think phonology and phonotactics belong to a third category distinct from either grammar or lexicon, but that all three are highly interconnected. But it sounds like there is no clear consensus. Anyway, not to derail the thread:

Here is my outline for Himmaswa:

Code: Select all

1. Introduction
2. Phonology
  2.1. Consonants
    2.1.1. Noteworthy Consonantal Allophones
  2.2. Vowels
    2.2.1. Basic Vowel Qualities
    2.2.2. Diphthongs and Triphthongs
    2.2.3. Phonation
    2.2.4. Full Vowel Listing
      2.2.4.1. Vowels Listed by Phonation Type
      2.2.4.2. Traditional Listing of Vowels
    2.3 Note on Romanization
    2.4. Phonotactics
      2.4.1. Onsets
      2.4.2. Nuclei
      2.4.3. Codas
    2.5. Stress
      2.5.1. Lexical Stress
      2.5.2. Prosodic Stress
      2.5.2. Stressed Vowel Pitch
3. Morphology
  3.1. Nouns
    3.1.1 Plurals
      3.1.1.1. Associative Plurals
    3.1.2. Pronouns
      3.1.2.1. Personal Pronouns
      3.1.2.2. Interrogative Pronouns
      3.1.2.3. Third Person Pronouns as Topic Markers
      3.1.2.4. Relative Pronouns
      3.1.2.5. Archaic or Dialectal Pronouns
    3.1.3. Demonstrative Constructions
      3.1.3.1. Locative Pronouns
      3.1.3.2. Demonstrative Adjectives
      3.1.3.2. Demonstrative Pronouns
  3.2. Verbs
    3.2.1. Dynamic Verbs
    3.2.2. Perfective Verbs
    3.2.3. Stative Verbs
    3.2.4. Semantic Similarities Between Verbs of Different Aspectual Classes
    3.2.5. The Copula
    3.2.6. Auxiliary Verbs
      3.2.6.1. Alignment Auxiliaries
      3.2.6.2. Perfect Auxiliaries
      3.2.6.3. Imperfect Auxiliaries
      3.2.6.4. Modal Auxiliaries
      3.2.6.5. Order of Auxiliaries	
    3.2.8. Transitivity
      3.2.8.1. Explicit Marking of Intransitive Verbs
      3.2.8.2. Explicit Marking of Transitive Verbs
    3.2.9. Verb Nominalization
    3.2.7. Pseudo-Prepositional Verbs
      3.2.7.??. (not yet organized)
  3.3. Conjunctions
    3.3.??. (not yet organized)
  3.4. Interjections and Sentence Final Particles
    3.4.1. Particles of Request
    3.4.2. Particles of Suggestion
    3.4.3. Particles of Affirmation
    3.4.4. Verb-Particle Relationships
4. Derivational Morphology
  4.1. Noun-Noun Compounds
  4.2. Noun-Verb Compounds
  4.3. Verb-Noun Compounds
  4.4. Serial Verb Compounds
  4.5. Reduplication
5. Syntax
  5.1. Standard Word Order
    5.1.1. Topic vs. Subject
      5.1.1.1. Topic Fronting
  5.2. Question forms
    5.2.1 Content Questions
    5.2.2 Polar Questions
  5.3. Comparatives & Superlatives
  5.4. Counting
    5.4.??. (not organized)
7.  Writing System
  7.1. Fkeuswa
    7.1.1. Semantic Primitives
    7.1.2. Semantic Radicals
    7.1.3. Phonetic Complements
    7.1.3.1. Onset Complements
    7.1.3.2. Onset-Nucleus Complements
    7.1.3.3. Morpheme Complements
    7.1.4 Simplification
    7.1.5. Typography
      7.1.5.1. Punctuation Marks
      7.1.5.2. Standard Paragraphing
  7.3. Fkeumgerswa
    7.3.1. Consonant Signs
    7.3.2. Vowel Signs
      7.3.2.1. Determination of Vowel Sound
    7.3.3. Consonant Subscripts
    7.3.4. Punctuation

Thank you. You've given me a few ideas for organisation; I completely forgot about punctuation, and you've given me some ideas on how to structure my syntax.

[clawgrip]

My syntax section there is very much a WIP. I need to start adding things as I come up with them.

[Nexapf]

This is my structure =)

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Acknowledgements

x 1 introduction
	x 1.1 background to this text
	x 1.2 language name
	x 1.3 the general setting
		x 1.3.1 when and by whom the language is spoken
	x 1.4 a note on the filians
	x 1.5 language overview
	 
x 2 how this text is written — the form of representation
	x 2.1 body text 
	x 2.2 interlinear glossing
	x 2.3 tables
	x 2.4 abbreviations
		x 2.4.1 general abbreviations
		x 2.4.2 grammatical abbreviations
	x 2.5 transcription

1 phonology 
	1.1 phonemes
		1.1.1 allophones
			1.1.1.1 free allophones
			1.1.1.2 complementary allophones
	1.2 phonotactics
		1.2.1 syllable
		1.2.2 consonant clusters
			1.2.2.1 epenthesis for consonant clusters
		1.2.3 vowel clusters
			1.2.3.1 epenthesis for vowel clusters
	1.3 prosody (stress)
		1.3.1 word level
		1.3.2 sentence level

2 word classes
	2.1 verbs (active verbs, and stative vebs of state)
		2.1.1 verb paradigm, and verb template
			2.1.1.1 tenses
			2.1.1.2 aspects
			2.1.1.3 moods
			2.1.1.4 intensity of verbs
		2.1.2 verb participle/adjectival verb
			2.1.2.1 perfective participle
		2.1.3 verb as mood auxiliary for noun/adjective
	2.2 nouns (noun-like stative verbs, or, stative verbs of property)
		2.2.1 proper names
			2.2.1.2 intensity of proper names, vocative
			2.2.1.3 nicknames
	2.3 adjectives (adjective-like stative verbs, or stative verbs of property)
		2.3.1 intensity of adjectives (comparison)
	2.4 pronouns (short-verbs)
		2.4.1 persons & unknowns
	2.5 postpositions, and other flowing words
		2.5.1 morphosyntactic markers, and time, place, manner (valency expansion)
		2.5.2 genitives
		2.5.3 exclamatories
		2.5.4 numbers
			2.5.4.1 more on numbers (fractions, powers-of, determiners)
		2.5.5 demonstratives
		2.5.6 others (coordinators, the negator, and more)

3 words and their dependency structure (phrases)
	3.1 the nucleus verb
		3.1.1 qualifiers
			3.1.1.1 verb qualifier
			3.1.1.2 noun qualifier
			3.1.1.3 adjective qualifier
			3.1.1.4 participle qualifier
	3.2 the constituents
			3.2.1 noun 
				3.2.1.1 nominalized clauses
			3.2.2 adjective
			3.2.3 participle
			3.2.4 pronoun
	3.4 recursion (subordination)
	3.5 coordination of words, and apposition

4 syntax, and the dependency structure of clauses
	4.1 branching
	4.2 syntax, and semantics, and linguistic typology
		4.2.1 morphosyntactic alignment		(quantitative linguistic typology)
		4.2.2 thematic relations				(deep semantics)
		4.2.3 grammatical relations, and valency 	(surface syntax)
			4.2.3.1 valency expansion and reduction
	4.3 clause types
		4.3.1 declarative
		4.3.1 interrogative
		4.3.3 imperative
		4.3.4 exclamatory
		4.3.5 negative
	4.4 time & space & manner
	4.5 recursion (dependent/subordinate clauses)
	4.6 coordination of clauses
	4.7 fronting and "passivization"

5 semantics
	5.1 to express aspect, 			beyond formal markings of verbs
		5.1.1 filian verbs 			and inherent aspect
		5.1.2 xik 					and verbs of constant motion
		5.1.3 ól					and verbs with an inherent possability for completion 
		5.1.4 ts(e) 				and general transitivity
	5.2 to express tense, 				beyond formal markings of verbs
	5.3 to express mood, 			beyond formal markings of verbs
	5.4 to express person,			beyond (pro)nouns
	5.5 to express sex,				beyond formal marking (sex-normativity)
	5.6 deixis
	5.7 anaphora
	5.9 semantic fields
		
6 lexicon
	6.1 word derivation
	6.2 compounds
		6.2.1 lexical compounds
		6.2.2 non-lexical compounds
	6.3 loans
	6.4 contractions, and abbreviations

7 meta information
	7.1 space preception
	7.2 time preception
	7.3 numeral theory

8 orthography
	8.1 standard script
	8.2 historical scripts

9 word lists
	9.1 source-target
	9.2 target-source
	9.3 thematic source-target

10 historical linguistics
	10.1 etymologies
	10.2 sound changes

11 pragmatics
	11.1 idioms

12 culture
	12.1 world
		12.1.1 maps
	12.2 the filian people
		12.2.1 kinship terms
	12.3 fauna
	12.4 flora

[matsu]

This is my structure =)

Code: Select all

Acknowledgements

x 1 introduction
	x 1.1 background to this text
	x 1.2 language name
	x 1.3 the general setting
		x 1.3.1 when and by whom the language is spoken
	x 1.4 a note on the filians
	x 1.5 language overview
	 
x 2 how this text is written — the form of representation
	x 2.1 body text 
	x 2.2 interlinear glossing
	x 2.3 tables
	x 2.4 abbreviations
		x 2.4.1 general abbreviations
		x 2.4.2 grammatical abbreviations
	x 2.5 transcription

1 phonology 
	1.1 phonemes
		1.1.1 allophones
			1.1.1.1 free allophones
			1.1.1.2 complementary allophones
	1.2 phonotactics
		1.2.1 syllable
		1.2.2 consonant clusters
			1.2.2.1 epenthesis for consonant clusters
		1.2.3 vowel clusters
			1.2.3.1 epenthesis for vowel clusters
	1.3 prosody (stress)
		1.3.1 word level
		1.3.2 sentence level

2 word classes
	2.1 verbs (active verbs, and stative vebs of state)
		2.1.1 verb paradigm, and verb template
			2.1.1.1 tenses
			2.1.1.2 aspects
			2.1.1.3 moods
			2.1.1.4 intensity of verbs
		2.1.2 verb participle/adjectival verb
			2.1.2.1 perfective participle
		2.1.3 verb as mood auxiliary for noun/adjective
	2.2 nouns (noun-like stative verbs, or, stative verbs of property)
		2.2.1 proper names
			2.2.1.2 intensity of proper names, vocative
			2.2.1.3 nicknames
	2.3 adjectives (adjective-like stative verbs, or stative verbs of property)
		2.3.1 intensity of adjectives (comparison)
	2.4 pronouns (short-verbs)
		2.4.1 persons & unknowns
	2.5 postpositions, and other flowing words
		2.5.1 morphosyntactic markers, and time, place, manner (valency expansion)
		2.5.2 genitives
		2.5.3 exclamatories
		2.5.4 numbers
			2.5.4.1 more on numbers (fractions, powers-of, determiners)
		2.5.5 demonstratives
		2.5.6 others (coordinators, the negator, and more)

3 words and their dependency structure (phrases)
	3.1 the nucleus verb
		3.1.1 qualifiers
			3.1.1.1 verb qualifier
			3.1.1.2 noun qualifier
			3.1.1.3 adjective qualifier
			3.1.1.4 participle qualifier
	3.2 the constituents
			3.2.1 noun 
				3.2.1.1 nominalized clauses
			3.2.2 adjective
			3.2.3 participle
			3.2.4 pronoun
	3.4 recursion (subordination)
	3.5 coordination of words, and apposition

4 syntax, and the dependency structure of clauses
	4.1 branching
	4.2 syntax, and semantics, and linguistic typology
		4.2.1 morphosyntactic alignment		(quantitative linguistic typology)
		4.2.2 thematic relations				(deep semantics)
		4.2.3 grammatical relations, and valency 	(surface syntax)
			4.2.3.1 valency expansion and reduction
	4.3 clause types
		4.3.1 declarative
		4.3.1 interrogative
		4.3.3 imperative
		4.3.4 exclamatory
		4.3.5 negative
	4.4 time & space & manner
	4.5 recursion (dependent/subordinate clauses)
	4.6 coordination of clauses
	4.7 fronting and "passivization"

5 semantics
	5.1 to express aspect, 			beyond formal markings of verbs
		5.1.1 filian verbs 			and inherent aspect
		5.1.2 xik 					and verbs of constant motion
		5.1.3 ól					and verbs with an inherent possability for completion 
		5.1.4 ts(e) 				and general transitivity
	5.2 to express tense, 				beyond formal markings of verbs
	5.3 to express mood, 			beyond formal markings of verbs
	5.4 to express person,			beyond (pro)nouns
	5.5 to express sex,				beyond formal marking (sex-normativity)
	5.6 deixis
	5.7 anaphora
	5.9 semantic fields
		
6 lexicon
	6.1 word derivation
	6.2 compounds
		6.2.1 lexical compounds
		6.2.2 non-lexical compounds
	6.3 loans
	6.4 contractions, and abbreviations

7 meta information
	7.1 space preception
	7.2 time preception
	7.3 numeral theory

8 orthography
	8.1 standard script
	8.2 historical scripts

9 word lists
	9.1 source-target
	9.2 target-source
	9.3 thematic source-target

10 historical linguistics
	10.1 etymologies
	10.2 sound changes

11 pragmatics
	11.1 idioms

12 culture
	12.1 world
		12.1.1 maps
	12.2 the filian people
		12.2.1 kinship terms
	12.3 fauna
	12.4 flora

Actually, this is great. Could you send me a link to your documentation? I'd love to take a glance.

EDIT: Ah, nevermind, I have dredged it up and am giving it a looksie.