zompist bboard

The latest Conlangery podcast had me finally wanting to write out how different relations are marked in Majiusgaru. Its been sitting in my head for sometime but I never put it down.

Experiencers, themes, and patients are treated as Patients. This means they are marked with the absolutive (by position, the S in VS and the P in VPA) and on the verb with a suffix. Experiencers take precidence over themes, such that if both occur the experiencer is marked on the verb and takes the left most position.
The eel slept
The eel was hit
I hit the eel
I saw an eel.
I am green (I habitually experience greenness)

Agents, causes, forces are treated as Agents. They are marked with an ergative preposition and position (A in VPA) and on ditransitive verbs with prefixes. The antipassive voice lets them be treated as Patients (see above). Also some verbs are unergative. There is no passive construction so there is a lexical distinction, e.g. travel vs be transported. A participant can only be an agent if it as volition. If a cause is such that it takes away volition then it is the agent and non-volitional participant is demoted to instrument.
The eel bit me
The rain wetted me
The eel bit
I left
Hunger made me eat the eels (lit. Hunger ate the eels by means of me)

Directions/goals, recipients, purposes, and beneficiaries are marked by the benefactive preposition and oblique position (X in VSX and VPAX). Often the difference between a purpose and a cause is its effect on volition. If an agent choose to do an action then the reason is a purpose. If an agent is forced to do the action then the reason is a cause. The position hierarchy is Direction/Goal > Recipient > Beneficiary > Purpose.
I went to the summit
I gave an apple to you
I ate the eels because of hunger
I caught the eels for him
I gave eels to Sara for Tommy for his hunger.

Instruments, durations, and origins are marked with the instrumental preposition and oblique position (X in VSX and VPAX). A would-be agent demoted due to a cause taking its volition is considered an instrument. Instruments generally precede origins, except when highlighting origin. Generally instrumental obliques are mentioned after benefactive obliques.
I hit the eel with a club
I slept for 3 hours
We came from Tegucigalpa
They came by boats from Spain
It was from Spain they came from in their boats

Spatial and temporal locations are marked with the locative preposition and oblique position (X in VSX and VPAX). Generally spatial location takes precedence over temporal location. Time can also be handled with certain temporal adverbs.
I slept in the boat
I ate an eel at sunset
I ate an eel in the boat at sunset

Comments, questions, terminology corrections, etc are appreciated.