Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".
The derivational affixes are summarized in the following table:
| Affix | Tag | Name | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| .V | -Inv | Inversion | Predicates |
| .I | -Inch | Inchoative | |
| .O | -Term | Terminative | |
| .M | -Man | Manner | Adverbs |
| .D | -Deg | Degree |
A predicate stem may consist of a predicate root, or it may be derived by various means. Inflections apply to the stem.
There are 4 ways of putting predicates together to form compounds: suffixing, concatenation, incorporation, and qualification. In words using more than 1 of these, concatenation has the highest precedence and qualification the lowest. Note that there's nothing like a Noun-Noun compound such as "fishfork"; the relationship must be made explicit.
Static bivalent predicates can be made into telic trivalent predicates by suffixing. The inchoative suffix (.I, -Inch) marks a cause to enter the state while the terminative suffix (.O, -Term) marks a cause to exit the state. For both, the original X argument becomes the new Z argument and the new X argument represents the cause, which also may have the origin role if inchoative or the destination role if terminative.
The naming suffix (;, -Nom) converts the word stem into a bivalent name predicate (class HP). The new X argument represents the named entity and the new Y argument represents the naming entity.
With concatenation, 2 or more bivalent predicates are combined producing a single bivalent predicate, which represents the product (or composition?) of the relations denoted by the individual predicates. Insert math here. Therefore, the predicates are arranged so that the X end of a predicate is adjacent to the Y end of the next predicate. The Y argument of the 1st predicate becomes that of the chain and the X argument of the last predicate becomes that of the chain. One use of concatenation is in forming kinship terms.
When an argument of a bivalent predicate is non-referential and consists of a single univalent predicate, the bivalent predicate may incorporate the univalent one by prefixing it; the resulting stem is univalent. Bivalent predicates differ as to which argument may be incorporated without using an inversion suffix. The labels here are the 3rd component of the predicate's class label. The possible classes are as follows:
| Label | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| X | X-Direct | argument X is incorporated without suffix |
| Y | Y-Direct | argument Y is incorporated without suffix |
| R | Reciprocal | arguments X and Y are interchangeable |
| Z | Z | argument Z is incorporated (no suffix) |
If the class is null, no incorporation is possible.
Lexically reciprocal stems use no inversion marking. Otherwise, the inversion suffix (.V, -Inv) must be used when the non-default argument is incorporated. Since concatenation takes precedence, the inversion suffix inverts the whole product.
Derived trivalent words have class Z.
A univalent predicate may be preceded by 1 or more modifying univalent predicates.
Manner adverbs are constructed by suffixing the manner affix (.M, -Man) to a predicate stem.
Degree, measure, and duration adverbs are constructed by suffixing the degree affix (.D, -Deg) to a predicate stem, which must be preceded by a quantity word, unless the quantity is 1.
Adverbs denoting the number of iterations and the number of occurrences are constructed using the iterations (Itr) and occurrences (Occ) predicates, respectively, which must each be preceded by a quantity word, unless the quantity is 1 or the predicate is marked plural. Either of these predicates may also be preceded by an ordinal number.
page started: 2015.Jul.29 Wed
current date: 2015.Sep.04 Fri
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
Table of Contents