Summing up
You call this a simple grammar?
Well, here is a complete reference grammar. Everything else was just an explanation of how Lemizh concepts map to English grammar.
You can download the grammar as a PDF here (4 pages).
Phonology and writing
- Alphabet and sounds, digits, and punctuation as defined in the respective tables
Morphology (word grammar)
- Parts of a word: prestem + inner case + poststem + outer case
- Level as defined in this table. Only positive levels are allowed for words. The agent is the source of the intention.
- Case descriptors as defined in this table, with rows 5 to 8 being agent-centered; plus the two secondary case suffixes denoting partitive (n, ‘the set from which the sender [recipient, place, etc.] is thought to be taken’) and qualitative cases (m, ‘the basis of comparison – located in the same hypothetical world as all others – for the sender [recipient, place, etc.]’)
- The stem of a word always denotes an action, and the inner case describes the word’s relation to this action.
- The stems of the relative pronouns are defined in this table.
Derivational morphology (compound words)
- One. A compound word is constructed from a two-word sentence – predicate and object of which become modifier and head of the compound, respectively – as shown here.
- Two. In the relationship between the original predicate and object, the rules of sentence grammar are retained as far as applicable.
- Three. Regarding all outward relations, cases refer to the head.
Syntax (sentence grammar)
- One. Sentence structure. A word of level n is subordinate to the nearest word of level n−1 in front of it; the parole acts as a word of level zero.
- Two. Definition of objects. An object of a word in a sentence is a word subordinate to the former, its predicate, plus all of its own objects.
- Three. Outer case. The outer case of the first word of an object defines its relation to its predicate’s stem via its descriptor; the outer case of a level 1 word is zero.
- Four. Identity of action. An instance of a word stem designates a specific action.
- Five. Completeness of cases. A case characterises the action it refers to completely with regard to its case descriptor.
- Six. Missing objects. A missing object is equivalent to the absence of information about its descriptor.
- Seven. Degree of reality. Given an object and its predicate, the predicate is considered more real and the object more hypothetical.
And the lexicon?
The table of relative pronouns is doubtlessly part of the grammar; demonstrative pronouns, negators, verbs of comparison, temporal and spatial verbs, là . and mà ., less so – they don’t behave in any special way compared with other words.
But hasn’t the grammar simply been replaced with vocabulary? There is no plural, no comparative, no moods, but there are the verbs mlà . ‘several’, tà cd. ‘more’, and modal verbs instead. But then, languages that do employ these grammatical categories don’t seem to be able to do without ‘several’, ‘more’, or modals, so Lemizh doesn’t replace grammar but only gets rid of duplicates. Retaining the words and getting rid of the grammatical categories has the advantage of greater flexibility. mlà . can be used with various inner and outer cases, compounded, and inverted, all without introducing a single additional rule.
What next?
To learn about what can really be done with these few rules, and about all the subtleties, go to the comprehensive tutorial. There you will also find a lot of quotes that explain my choice of the example sentences, and a number of home exercises.