Editing Eyak language (section)

==Syntax==
The majority of the Eyak corpus is narrative, with very little spontaneous conversation (and that only when embedded in the narratives). There is a better understanding therefore of the syntax of Eyak narrative style and performance than of natural speech. The basic word order of Eyak is [[Subject–object–verb|subject-object-verb]], or SOV, as in "''Johnny ’uyAqa’ts’ sALxut’L''" "Johnny shot his (own) hand." Relatively few sentences, however, follow this exact pattern; it is far more common to find SV or OV. The full word order of a transitive sentence is I S O <nowiki>[[C P] V]</nowiki>:
*I, introductory sector: consists of two parts, a connective (e.g. 'and so,' 'then,' etc.) and one or more adverbs, especially temporal and spatial adverbs. 
*S, subject
*O, object
*V, verb sector: includes two subsectors in addition to the verb. 
**C, complement subsector: in Eyak syntax a complement is a noun or noun phrase (e.g. not a demonstrative pronoun) and does not have the same meaning as the usual use of 'complement' in ordinary syntax. This is due to traditional classifications of Eyak. 
**P, preverbal subsector: includes preverbals (preverbs and postpositions) and pronouns.

The subject and object categories can consist of a [[noun]], a [[noun phrase]], or a [[demonstrative]] phrase. All constituents may be filled by zero, excepting the verb.