Collectors

Going.	I go.	I go to the beach.	I go from home to the sunny beach.

A rikchik sentence has a tree structure, where the final word is connected to some number of previous words, which are in turn connected to other words, all the way out to the leaf words, which have no further connections. The connections are specified by the "collector" tentacle in the lower right part of the word. The shape of the collector indicates how many of the previously uncollected words this word collects, creating a connection with each one. The meaning of the created connection is specified by the relation of the collected word.

	Home-P-Source-0
	Home-P-Source-0 Sun-R-Quality-0
	Home-P-Source-0 Sun-R-Quality-0 Beach-P-Destination-1
	Home-P-Source-0 Sun-R-Quality-0 Beach-P-Destination-1 Me-R-Patient-0
	Home-P-Source-0 Sun-R-Quality-0 Beach-P-Destination-1 Me-R-Patient-0 Move-V-End-3

	0
	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
	6
	7
	S

The table on the left shows the number of words collected for each collector. The "S" entry is the "scholastic" collector, which is described below.

The table on the right illustrates how a sentence is formed into a tree from a sequence of words. The sentence is "I go from home to the sunny beach" in English, or "Home-P-Source-0 Sun-R-Quality-0 Beach-P-Destination-1 Me-R-Patient-0 Move-V-End-3" in rikchik. Each row shows a written word, the sentence in ascii form up to that point, and the tree structure for the sentence up to that point.

The first two words, "from home" and "sunny", have "0" collectors, and thus they are new leaf words. The third word, "to the beach", has a "1" collector and so collects the previous word, creating a branch signifying "to the sunny beach". The fourth word, "I", has a "0" collector and is therefore another new leaf. The last word, "go", has a "3" collector, so it collects the three previous uncollected words: the "from home" leaf, the "to the sunny beach" branch, and the "I" leaf. The last word has an "End" relation, so it completes the sentence and cannot be collected by later words.

Scholastic collector: The "scholastic" collector () indicates that this word collects the uncollected leaves directly before it, up to the first non-leaf before it. (This collector is so named because a large collection of rikchik children with a single adult is usually a school class. Rikchiks do not generally have very many children.)

	Home-P-Source-0 Sun-R-Quality-0 Beach-P-Destination-1 Me-R-Patient-0 Move-V-End-3 Beach-P-Agent-0P Me-R-Patient-0 Happy-V-End-2
	I go from home to the sunny beach. That beach makes me happy.

Pronomial collectors: The collector's position is also meaningful. If the collector is positioned above the lower right corner (but not as high as the right center point), the word is a "pronomial" word and refers to the same concept signified by the previously mentioned word having the same morpheme. (In ascii form this is expressed by adding a "P" to the collector number.)

As an example, if the sentence "I go from home to the sunny beach" from above is followed by the sentence "Beach-P-Agent-0P Me-R-Patient-0 Happy-V-End-2", the pronomial collector on Beach-P-Agent-0P makes its meaning "the previously mentioned beach" or "that beach", and the entire second sentence can be translated as "That beach makes me happy."

	Home-P-Source-0 Sun-R-Quality-0 Beach-P-Patient-1 Wind-R-Quality-0 Beach-P-Patient-1 Gather-P-Destination-2 Me-R-Patient-0 Move-V-End-3 Sun-R-Quality-0O Beach-P-Agent-1P Me-R-Patient-0 Happy-V-End-2
	I go from home to the sunny beach and the windy beach. That sunny beach makes me happy.

Option-Pronomial collectors: If the collector is positioned at the right center point of the word, the word is an "option-pronomial" word. These words are used in conjunction with pronomial words to specify an antecedent other than the previous occurrence of the morpheme. The pronomial word and any option-pronomial words it collects (and any that they collect, etc.) matches the antecedent which collects words with the same morphemes.

Consider this modification of the example sentence: "Home-P-Source-0 Sun-R-Quality-0 Beach-P-Patient-1 Wind-R-Quality-0 Beach-P-Patient-1 Gather-P-Destination-2 Me-R-Patient-0 Move-V-End-3" / "I go from home to the sunny beach and the windy beach." If this is followed by the sentence "Beach-P-Agent-0P Me-R-Patient-0 Happy-V-End-2" / "That beach makes me happy.", the beach referred to would be the windy one. If instead the sentence "Sun-R-Quality-0O Beach-P-Agent-1P Me-R-Patient-0 Happy-V-End-2" / "That sunny beach makes me happy." follows, the sunny beach is specifically indicated.

Odd antecedents: Pronomial words can refer to any previous word, including those signed by other people. In storytelling, pronomials within dialogue can reference words in the narration. Most surprisingly, pronomials can refer to concepts in the surrounding world that have not been described in words, if it is clear that, were the events being narrated, that concept would have been recently mentioned. This is understood to be due to the rikchik passion for storytelling, to the degree that rikchiks often consider themselves to be living in a story. These "narrator antecedents" can be unclear, and when being precise, it is safer to point and say something like, "Tentacle-V-Means-0 Rikchik-R-End-0" / "the pointed-at rikchik".