A Sentence is a chunk of drama - like a cell in a comic book, it represents a single narrative step that an Actor takes. This narrative step is very flexible - it can be of any length of time and it can involve many Actors and other Words, or just one. It can represent a minute action like a blink or a prolonged activity like a speech. All the activity in a Storyworld is expressed in Sentences.

A Sentence is built out of Deikto Words. The most important of these is the Sentece's Verb. The Verb describes what is being done in the Sentence. Further, the Verb, through its WordSocekts, also determines what other kinds of Words the Sentence will contain. Each WordSocket defines a certain question that must be answered to put the Verb in context. For example, take the DirObject WordSocket. If a Verb has this WordSocket, it means this Verb is only meaningful in the context of being done to someone. When an Actor creates a Sentence with such a Verb, he must decide who that someone is, and include his answer in the Sentence.

For example, the Verb "give" might have two WordSockets: DirObject (the beneficiary of the giving) and Prop1 (the article being given). When an Actor creates a "give" Sentence, he must decide whom to assign to the DirObject WordSocket, and what to assign to Prop1. He will automatically assign himself to the Subject WordSocket. So depending on who the Subject and DirObject are, and what Prop is being given, many different Sentences can be created with the Verb "give." You could say "Eve give Adam Fig." You could say "Prometheus give Man fire." You could say "Bertrand give Nietzche flu." These Sentences all have the same Verb, hence the same WordSockets, hence the same form.

Plans and Events

Sentences are created during the Reaction Cycle as Plans. A Plan represents and Actor's intention to do something in the future. Each Plan is created with a PlannedExecutionTime, which is the storyminute when this Plan is supposed to be carried out. Once a Plan is created, it is recoreded in the storyworld's Planlist.

During the Action Cycle, each Actor takes one of his Plans whose PlannedExecutionTime has arrived and acts on that Plan. This Sentence then ceases to be a Plan and becomes an Event, which is simply a Sentence that has already been performed. When a Plan becomes an Event, it is removed from the Planlist and entered into the Historybook.

Common Sentence Forms

You can create many different WordSocket patterns for your Verbs. However, most Verbs use one of three basic WordSocket patterns. This results in three basic Sentence forms; action Sentences, evaluation Sentences, and narrative Sentences. Each form has a characteristic pattern of WordSockets, which may appear in slight variations, as described below. All Sentences have a Subject WordSocket and a Verb WordSocket. Any one of these forms may appear with or without the Adverb WordSocket. This WordSocket describes how emphathic the Sentence is.

Action Sentences

This is the most basic Sentence form. It is used for Sentences that represent what an Actor does. A Verb of this form is usually done to someone, represented by the DirObject WordSocket. Ocassioanlly, it is done to something or someplace, in which case it will use the DirProp or DirStage WordSockets instead. In some rare Verbs, there's no one and nothing on the receiving end (for example, "sleep"). Such Verbs will have neither of these three WordSockets.

Sometimes a Verb has an additional, different effect on someone, something or someplace (see the example with "give," above). Such a Verb has an Actor1, Prop1 or Stage1 WordSocket. These WordSockets will only appear in Verbs that have a DirObject, DirProp or DirStage WordSocket.

Sometimes a Verb has the same effect on two entities rather than one. For example, your storyworld might include the Verb "declare matrimony," to be used by the storyworld's priest. This Verb affects both newlyweds in the same way at the same time. Thus, it would have a DirObject WordSocket and a DirObject1 WordSocket. A Verb can have up to four such additional WordSockets.

Conversely, some Verbs involve two people doing the same thing at the same time (your newlyweds will probably spend their honeymoon performing such Verbs). Such a Verb has a Subject1 WordSocket in addition to the regular Subject WordSocket. Again, a Verb can have up to four additional Subjects.

Evaluation Sentences

Each Verb of this form is an expression of the Subject's opinion on someone, something or someplace. For example, you might have a Verb "evaluate," that allows an Actor to express his opinion on the Traits of a Prop. Such a Verb will have the PropDescribed WordSocket (the Prop which is being evaluated). It will also have the PropTrait WordSocket (the specific Trait on which the Prop is being evaluated). Finally, it will have the Quantifier WordSocket (the Subject's perception of said Trait in said Prop). Finally, such a Verb will always have the DirObject WordSocket (you always express your opinion to someone). This will produce Sentences such as "Harry evaluate John, Gold Watch Worthless_Valuable Huge." In English: "Harry evaluates to John the value of the gold watch as huge."

An evaluation Sentence can also express the Subject's opinion of a Stage. In this case, the PropDescribed and PropTrait WordSockets will be replaced by the StageDescribed and StageTrait WordSockets.

Lastly, an evaluation Sentence can express the Subject's opinion of another Actor. In this case, the PropDescribed WordSocket will be replaced by the ActorDescribed WordSocket. The PropTrait WordSocket will be replaced by either the ActorTrait or MoodTrait WordSocket, depending on whether the Subject is expressing his opinion of a Trait of the ActorDescribedt, or his perception of a Mood of that Actor.

Narrative Sentences

A Verb of this form is used to describe an activity. For example, you might have a Verb "report," that allows one Actor to tell another of the actions of a third. This Verb will always have a DirObject (the Actor receiving the report). It will also have a Verb1 WordSocket (the action that is being reported). Also, it will always include a Subject1 WordSocket. This WordSocket has a different meaning here than it has in action Sentences. Here, it represents the Subject of Verb1 (in this case, the Actor who performed the reported action). Example: "Nadia report Sam, Fred sleep." In English: "Nadia reports to Sam that Fred has slept."

This type of Sentence may include additional WordSockets, depending on the actions it's meant to describe. For the "report" example, you could include a DirObject1 WordSocket to describe the Actor on the receiving end of the reported action. Example: "Nadia report Sam, Fred kiss Wanda."

A narrative Sentence can describe two Sentences instead of one. For example, the Verb "offer deal" will describe the Subject's part of the deal and the DirObject's part of the deal. The action that the Subject offers to take will be described using the WordSockets Subject1, Verb1 and DirObject1. The action that the Subject wishes the DirObject to take will be described using the Subject2, Verb2 and DirObject2 WordSockets. Example: "Nadia offer deal Sam, Nadia teach latin Sam, Sam bake cookies Nadia." In English: "Nadia offers a deal to Sam; Nadia will teach Sam Latin, and in exchange Sam will bake cookies for Nadia."

A narrative Sentence can even describe another narrative Sentence ("Sam report Fred, Nadia report Sam, Fred kiss Wanda"). Let's look more closely at this example. "Sam report Fred" is the basis of our narrative Sentence, and it uses Subject, Verb and DirObject WordSockets. "Nadia report Sam" is the narrative Sentence being described by Sam, and it uses the Subject1, Verb1 and DirObject1 WordSockets. Lastly, "Fred kiss Wanda" is an action Sentence described by the narrative Sentence which Sam is currently describing. Surprisingly, it uses the WordSockets Subject3, Verb3 and DirObject3. Why did we skip the 2'? Recall from the previous paragraph that these Wordsockets are reserved for when you want your narrative Sentence to refer to two different Sentences. Think of it this way: you narrative Sentence can describe up to two Verbs; Verb1 and Verb2. Either of these can be a narrative Verb, itself describing a single Verb. If Verb1 is a narrative Verb, then it uses the Verb3 WordSocket for the Verb it describes. If Verb2 is a narrative Verb, it uses the Verb4 WordSocket. 

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