Toaq - Verbs and argument structure

Arguments follow their verb and are supplied from left to right in ascending order.

Verbs are variadic. This means that they can take a variable number of arguments. The number of arguments a predicate takes is called its arity. A Toaq verb is really a family of related verbs which differ by their arity. Each arity can have a slightly different meaning.

Nullary predicates don’t involve any explicit participants. They express that an action or state is going on.

	Chủq	nháo	súshı.
	eat	they	the-sushi
	"They eat the sushi."

Omnipredicativity

While English distinguishes between verbs, nouns and adjectives on a lexical level, Toaq unites all of these under a single part of speech: verbs. The equivalent of the English noun “table“ is a verb toqfua “to be a table”. The English adjective “large“ is rendered as the verb sao “to be large“.

The following examples illustrate this unification further. Note the parallel structure:

	Shủa	shámu.
	fall	the-apple
	"The apple falls."

	Nỏqgı	shámu.
	delicious	the-apple
	"The apple is delicious."

	Zẻo	shámu.
	fruit	the-apple
	"The apple is a fruit."

	Chủq.
	eat
	"Eating is going on."