Sep14 –  A Constructed Language

Sep14 Morphology

Legend: Definitions, Terms, <Text>, [IPA], -Tags-, and "Glosses".

Morphology Overview

Person and Number Terminology

This person terminology is used for verb inflection, noun inflection, and pronouns.

The 1st person distinguishes singular from plural. The 2nd person and inclusive person don't distinguish number. Although phrases can distinguish singular from plural, 3rd person inflections don't distinguish number.

Word Classification

The major classes of words are the verbs, participles, nouns, pronouns, quantity words, and particles. The kinds of particles are post-clausal, adverbial, and determining. Many static verbs (and some quantity words) are also scalar, i.e. able to be used to denote scales of comparison.

Verbs are grouped into classes with respect to agreement and action type. The morphological action types are static, habitual, dynamic, and telic.

Participles are also constructed from verb stems, so action type is relevent here as well.

Nouns can be animate or inanimate, count or mass, and common or proper. Pronouns may also be animate or inanimate.

Content Word Inflection

The following summarizes the inflectional structure:

Subject%#- VerbStem -Mood -Polarity -Voice
Subject%#- VerbStem -Aspect -Polarity -Voice
Argument%#- VerbStem -Aspect -Role -Polarity -Case
NounStem -Polarity -Case

Polarity Marking

Verbs, participles, nouns, and pronouns can all inflect for polarity in some fashion. Positive polarity is unmarked while negative polarity (-Neg) is marked with suffixes, as follows:

Polarity Marking
Stem Type Suffix Position
Noun -ók between stem and Number
Participle -ók between Role and Number
Verb -pa between Aspect and Voice
Imperative -pa between Mood and Voice

Aspects and Action Types

Aspect is common to verbs and participles and is marked with the 1st inflectional suffix after the derivational stem. The imperative mood and the aoristic aspect are limited to verbs. The following table shows the how the suffixes appear for each action type. The starred (*) entries mark the citation form suffixes.

Mood & Aspect Marking
Scalar Static Habitual Dynamic Telic Tag Name
-e * -(e) * -i * -i -Dur Durative
-eso -(e)so -úso -iso -(a)so -Prf Perfect
-ele -(e)le -úle -ile -(a)le -Pro Prospective
-ú * -Hab Habitual
-a -a -a -a -a * -Aor Aoristic
-Imp Imperative

Grammatical Voice Marking

The grammatical voice verb endings are shown in the following table:

Grammatical Voice Suffixes
Indicative Imperative Tag Description
-Dir Direct transitive
-ku - -Inv Inverse transitive
-n -Ant Antipassive
-r - -Pas Passive
-sh -Rfx Reflexive

Argument Prefixes

The subject and object prefixes shown in the following table appear on verbs:

Subject & Object Prefixes
Prefix Tag 1st Argument 2nd Argument
nu- ? BLS- 2nd person 1st person Singular
tu- ? BLP- 2nd person 1st person Plural
ni- 1S- 1st person Singular 3rd person (if transitive)
ti- 1P- 1st person Plural
ta- Incl- Inclusive person
go- 2- 2nd person
3rd person

The argument prefixes shown in the following table may appear on participles:

Participle Argument Prefixes
Prefix Tag Description
ni- 1S- 1st person Singular
ti- 1P- 1st person Plural
ta- Incl- Inclusive person
go- 2- 2nd person
shi- Rfx- Reflexive
3rd person

Participle Role Marking

Participles are identified and distinguished by the role suffix, which follows the aspect suffix.

Participle Roles Suffixes
Suffix Tag Description
-kh -Don donor or agent
-t -Rcp recipient or animate patient
-m -Thm theme or inanimate patient

Case Endings

The case endings are the final suffixes appearing on nouns and participles.

Case Endings
Suffix Tag Name
-e -NF Non-final Form
-o -CF Combining Form
-i -Nom Nominative
-u -Pri Primative
-Gen Genitive

Pronouns

Pronouns may take the same case endings as nouns, although some forms are rare.

The following table shows the personal, correlative, and reflexive pronoun roots.

Some Pronoun Roots
Root Tag Description Group
nikh- 1S 1st person Singular Personal
tikh- 1P 1st person Plural
takh- Incl Inclusive person
gokh- 2 2nd person
shikh- Rfx Reflexive (3rd person) Other
j- Cor Correlative

All other pronouns are composites of determiner plus gender words.

Gender Word Roots
Root Tag Description
t- Anim animate
m- Inan inanimate

The determiner roots which form pronouns are shown in the following table:

Determiner Roots
Root Tag Description
di Prox proximal demonstrative
do Medi medial demonstrative
la Dist distal demonstrative
cha CQ content question
e Ind indefinite
hanto other, rest

The plural indicator -s(u) may appear immediately before the gender word.

The kind indicator -rá is an additional element which may appear immediately after the determiner root, e.g. dirast- "these kinds of beings".

The genitive forms of personal pronouns may also combine with the gender words (possibly with the kind and/or plural indicators) to form possessive pronouns.


Content Word Inflection Examples

gotepapa
go-tep·i-a-pa
2-run-Aor-Neg
"You didn't run"

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Special Verbs

The special verbs (Class 2) include the existential and contrafactual verbs. These are distinct from the copula (bú· Cop), which is a defective (?) habitual Class 5 verb.

Special Verbs
Root Tag Description
hú· Exi existential, positive
pá· Neg existential, negative
pen· CtfPos contrafactual, positive
shau· CtfNeg contrafactual, negative

Quantity Words

The quantity words include the cardinal numbers, the fractional numbers, the plural marker s(u) P, and a few other words.

Cardinal Numbers

The basic number words are the digits, multiples of ten, and multiples of one hundred. These are arranged from largest to smallest to form compound quantity words.

Number Words
Value Stem Value Stem Value Stem Value Stem
1 hai 10 sete 100 rabi 1st miku
2 dai 20 daste 200 darbi 2nd dayun
3 wipa 30 wipaste 300 wiparbi 3rd wipan
4 shoki 40 shokiste 400 shokirbi 4th shokin
5 selo 50 seloste 500 selorbi 5th selon
6 dapa 60 dapaste 600 daparbi 6th dapan
7 nage 70 nageste 700 nagerbi 7th nagen
8 dashki 80 dashkiste 800 dashkirbi 8th dashkin
9 kuno 90 kunoste 900 kunorbi 9th kunon

Examples: sete dai (12), dashkiste wipa (83), and shokirbi nageste (470).

Ordinal Numbers

Ordinal numbers are static verbs derived from the corresponding cardinal numbers. Only the last number word is modified. The digit values are shown in the table above. An -n -Ord is appended to tens or hundreds value when that word is last, e.g. dasten (20th).


Fractional Numbers

A fractional number consists of a numerator followed by a denominator. The numerator is a cardinal number, omitted if 1. Denominators are regularly formed from the corresponding cardinal numbers by appending -a't- before the final o. Examples: bira'to (1/2), baho saka'to (3/4).


Other Quantity Words

There are a few scalar quantity words; these are the only words with morphological comparatives, as shown in the following table:

Other Quantity Words
Word Comparative Gloss
fande fandure many
fasse fassure much
nende nendure few
nesse nessure little

Derivation

The means of derivation include incorporation, compounding, and suffixing.

Incorporation

Participles and verbs can incorporate nouns by prefixing the combining form of the noun to the verb; this preempts the participle's prefixed argument and one of the verb's arguments. The role of the incorporated noun complements that of the participle or the voice of the verb. E.g. warochobúkhi "fish-eater" (war-o + chob-ú-kh-i). Participles (without prefixes) are occasionally incorporated as well.

Compounding

The combining form of a noun or participle may also be prefixed to another noun, forming a compound noun. A participle may not have an argument prefix here. The meaning of these tends to be idiomatic.

Derivational Suffixes

The autocausative suffix -k·a -Aut may be appended to static and scalar stems, e.g. mink·a and sishek·a. It denotes an entry to the state caused by the descriptee or experiencer and produces telic verbs with the same agreement class as the original verb.

The conative suffix -íd·i -Con may be appended to telic, dynamic, habitual, and some static roots. It denotes attempted action and produces dynamic verbs with the same agreement class as the original verb.

The natural possibility suffix -af·(e) -NP and the natural necessity suffix -okh·(e) -NN may be appended to verb roots, producing static verbs with the same agreement class as the original verb. Natural possibility denotes ability or potential and natural necessity denotes inevitability.


Verb to Noun

There are also participant nominals and action nominals, which are deverbal nouns derived by applying infixes to verb roots.


Superlatives

Superlatives are static verbs regularly derived from scalar verbs by appending the superlative suffix -ék·u -Sup to the root.

page started: 2016.Sep.16 Fri
current date: 2016.Sep.25 Sun
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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