nominatífur

Nomínatífur is a hypothetical term used in linguistic typology and constructed-language design to describe a proposed alignment mechanism in which the nominative case of the subject actively governs the morphology of a clause’s predicates and dependent noun phrases. In a nominátífur system, nominative features would propagate beyond the subject to trigger concord in the main verb, adjectives, determiners, and pronouns within the same clause.

Etymology and scope: The term blends the English word nominate with a fictional suffix -ífur, created for theoretical discussion. Nomínatífur is not attested in natural languages and is chiefly discussed as a thought experiment or design option for conlangs, allowing researchers to explore how strong linking of subject features to other constituents might affect syntax and morphology.

Mechanism and typology: In nominátífur configurations, the subject’s nominative value influences multiple parts of the clause, producing cross-constituent nominative concord. This contrasts with standard nominative-accusative or ergative-absolutive systems, where agreement and marking align primarily with the syntactic role rather than with a unified nominative identity across the clause. The phenomenon is mainly discussed as a theoretical possibility and a tool for examining the limits of agreement systems.

Example and usage: A hypothetical nominátífur sentence would feature nominative marking not only on the subject but also on the main predicate and several modifiers, reflecting a cohesive nominative identity throughout the predicate structure. In practice, nominátífur serves as a device for exploring how language might behave under extreme cross-constituent convergence of nominative features.

See also: nominative-accusative, ergative-absolutive, case alignment, agreement, conlang design.