1. Overview
Blaken uses a fluid-S active-stative alignment system in which subjects and agents are identified through noun-phrase-level markers that encode internal states of control. The main features of the system are:
- Subjects are marked by semantic role rather than mere syntactic position.
- There is no accusative case; objects are unmarked.
- One noun phrase per clause carries a subject marker.
- Although VSO is preferred, variation is permitted insofar as the subject is morphologically marked.
1.1. Referential Nouns and Person-Like Roots
Blaken does not treat pronouns as a closed grammatical class. Forms translated as "I", "you", "we", "he/she", or "they" are better analyzed as referential nouns: ordinary roots that can point to a speaker, addressee, remembered person, social role, or inner stance.
This means that person reference is lexical and pragmatic rather than purely grammatical. A speaker may choose a bare referential root, a role noun, a kinship noun, a proper name, or an affective self-name depending on stance and discourse context.
Common referential roots in the present corpus include:
| Form | Typical use | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| wo | speaker / first-person locus | Can be marked as woblum or woprum depending on agency or reception |
| wopol | speaker-many / first-person plural | Used for "we/us" when the speaker speaks as part of a group |
| wol | shortened speaker-many / first-person plural | Contracted form of wopol in some corpus passages; full wopol is clearer when ambiguity matters |
| nas | addressee / second-person locus | Neutral addressee form |
| sen | third-person locus | Often recoverable from discourse rather than gender |
| ɸøn | person, being, animate participant | Generic human/animate referent |
| kro | deep or centered self | Used when the speaker distinguishes a steadier inner self from ordinary wo |
| nur | muted or dimmed self | Used for a depleted, quiet, or affectively reduced speaker-state |
| bal | reckless or bold self | Used when the speaker frames the self as rash, daring, or overbold |
Because these forms are nouns, they combine with the same alignment and relational morphology as other nouns:
blinken woblum nas
I love you intentionally / attentively
Tcinphleomvom, kjes kurtin glelglel kurken wopolblum.
Like small petals, we move through the wind.
Wam refblom tin jomken kroblum.
The deep self thinks that happiness is in rectitude.
The choice of referential noun is therefore meaningful. It identifies a grammatical person and frames the speaker's relation to the event.
The short plural form wol coexists with a separate lexical root wol "bored self". Context usually disambiguates the two: plural wol takes the same alignment and relational patterns as wopol, while affective wol behaves like other self-roots such as kro, nur, or bal. When both readings could be active, speakers may restore full wopol for the plural reading.
2. Subject Marking
Since no accusative case is used, the subject of the clause is always the noun phrase marked with either:
| Marker | Gloss | Meaning | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| blum | AGT | will, intention, agency | volitional subject / agent |
| prum | PAT | inertia, experience, lack of control | non-volitional subject / experiencer |
As shown above both markers occur after the noun, forming part of the noun phrase.
3. Clause Patterns
3.1. Volitional Transitive
| srjɒχtan | wo | -blum | wo | to | mon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| break-PFV.DIR | I | AGT | I | COM | object |
I broke my object intentionally. Lit. The object with me.
3.2. Non-Volitional Transitive
| srjɒχtan | wo | -prum | wo | to | mon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| break-PFV.DIR | I | PAT | I | COM | object |
I broke my object accidentally
3.3. Intransitive Volitional
| kurken | wo | -blum |
|---|---|---|
| walk-IPFV.DIR | I | AGT |
I walk / go intentionally
3.4. Intransitive Non-Volitional
| kurken | wo | -prum |
|---|---|---|
| walk-IPFV.DIR | I | PAT |
I find myself walking
3.5. Applicability to Both Intransitive and Transitive Verbs
| Marker | Gloss | Semantics | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| blum | AGT | volition, will, intentionality, control, attention | Marks the noun phrase as agent, volitional subject, or directed experiencer |
| prum | PAT | lack of control, inertia, reception, being affected | Marks the noun phrase as non-volitional subject, receptive experiencer, or patient |
When a verb refers to an animate entity, subject marking is generally present even in the absence of an explicit subject.
gromtan blum fan
Ate rice [some]
When events refer to inanimate entities, for instance in weather-related zero-valency events, subject marking may be omitted.
ʎiltu (prum be omitted)
It seems it rained
Dropping subject marking for inanimate entities may be avoided to facilitate parsing long phrases or to avoid ambiguity.
omken polko sɨprum sen os anko dʐoltolvom
These [things] appear as blessings for them
Moreover, if both blum and prum are pragmatically possible, prum is the default unless volition is contrastively asserted.
3.6. Attentional Readings with Perception and Acquisition Roots
With roots of perception, attention, and acquisition, blum and prum do more than mark who participates in the event. They also determine whether the participant is actively directing awareness toward a target or simply receiving the event.
| Root | With X-blum | With X-prum |
|---|---|---|
| gjof | search, look for | find, come upon |
| pum | listen, obey | hear without directed attention |
| mim | observe, look at attentively | see without directed attention |
Examples:
| Blaken | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| gjofken woblum fex | I look for the cat |
| gjofken woprum fex | I find the cat |
| pumken woblum bla | I listen to / obey the speech |
| pumken woprum bla | I hear the speech without directing attention |
| mimken woblum kim | I observe the tree |
| mimken woprum kim | I see the tree without directing attention |
This makes blum a marker of mindful orientation, and prum a marker of receptive contact. The contrast is especially important for verbs that English and Spanish split lexically, such as search/find, listen/hear, and observe/see.
3.7. Recoverable Subjects and Bare Alignment Markers
In careful analytic examples, a full noun phrase normally carries the alignment marker: woblum, woprum, senblum, tataprum, and so on. In running discourse, especially in poetry, ritual language, and parallel event chains, the referential noun may be omitted when it is recoverable from context.
In such cases blum or prum can appear as a bare alignment marker. The omitted participant is supplied by the active discourse frame.
Tin ex, extan blum, kentan blum glwɒmdom.
From inside, [we] emerged intentionally, [we] made houses.
Pinpin omken prum.
[We] appeared / were alone, without volitional control.
Bare alignment markers are most natural when:
- the same participant continues from the preceding clause;
- the text is listing events in a shared experiential frame;
- the subject is generic, communal, or ritually obvious;
- the speaker wants to foreground the event and stance rather than the participant noun.
This is an ellipsis strategy, not a separate agreement system. If ambiguity matters, the referential noun should be restored:
kentan wopolblum glwɒmdom
we made houses
The same principle applies to non-volitional or receptive frames:
mimken prum bljølko dom
[someone / the established experiencer] sees a bright place without directed attention