This section is relevent to both verb agreement and noun possession.
K4 doesn't make the conventual 1st and 2nd person distinction; instead it makes a distinction between knower and learner. The knower, or K person, refers to the speaker(s) in statements but to the addressee(s) in questions and commands, while the learner, or L person, refers to the addressee(s) in statements but to the speaker(s) in questions and commands. Both K and L persons distinguish singular and plural. Note that "speakers" and "addressees", when plural, may include associated persons, but are mutually exclusive. There's also an inclusive, or N person, that refers to the speakers and addressees together and is only plural.
K, L, and N persons are local pronominals, contrasting with the 3rd person, which is divided into SS or same subject and all other 3rd person references; SS patterns like the local pronominals.
In summary, the tags for the personal markers are KS (K-person singular), KP, LS, LP, NP, and SS. There's also a reflexive marker Rfx.
The verb base consists of a root and possibly a derivational prefix (included in the prefixes are some fairly regular functions such as the causative and benefactive). The base is either used as is to form the neutral stem or be modified for the semantic role of the subject, of which there are 3: Agt (agent or donor), Pat (patient or theme), and Loc (location or recipient). The modification involves replacing one of the stem short vowels with a long vowel or diphthong. The vowel modified is the prefix vowel if any, else the last vowel of the root, including otherwise deleted vowels.
The vowel modifications are as follows:
| Neutral | (i) | (o) | (e) | (a) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agent | í | í * | é | ai |
| Patient | ú * | ú | au | ó |
| Location | é | ó | æ | á |
| kabo | kabí | kabú | kabó |
| kaf | kaif | kóf | káf |
| t'kaf | tíkaf | súkaf | tékaf |
Depending on its argument structure, a verb can have up to 3 arguments. If any arguments are pronominal, the 1st is called the subject and the others are called objects, with the subject marked by a prefix to the verb stem and the objects marked by suffixes. Non-pronominal arguments appear as phrases and are distinguished by case. The semantic role of the subject is that indicated by the verb stem, the objects taking the other semantic roles.
There are 4 orders of conjugation for each verb, depending on the syntactic function. These are the imperative, independent, participial, and attributive orders.
Independent order forms are split into those with no person affixes and those with at least one. The former are used when all verb arguments are either phrases or omitted and consists of the neutral stem; the other stems are used otherwise. The first affix is the subject prefix, chosen according to the person hierarchy K# > L# > SS and NP > SS. Any other person arguments are marked with suffixes; any location or recipient appears first and any agent or donor appears last (K# and NP naturally don't appear as suffixes here).
| KS | KP | LS | LP | NP | SS | Rfx |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c(e)- | k(a)- | l- | q(a)- | ma- | s(e)- | |
| -c(i) | -k(o) | -l(i) | -q(o) | -m(o) | -s(i) | -f(a) |
Imperative order forms are a subset of the independent order forms; the difference in interpretation is due to the context. The possible subjects are limited to K# and NP.
Participial order forms use a coreferential prefix as subject: either HA- (Host Agent), HP- (Host Patient), or Rsl- (Resultative). The suffixes may include K# and NP as well as the others. The neutral stem isn't used.
Attributive order forms are marked using aspect prefixes rather than coreference. As with participial order forms, the suffixes include K# and NP as well as the others and the neutral stem isn't used. The aspects for dynamic verbs are retrospective (unmarked), imperfective (Ipf-), and prospective (Pro-). For static verbs, it's the stative aspect that's unmarked, with retrospective marked by Ret-.
The initial complex can consist of an initializer, a tense marker, and a pluractionality marker. The initializers include the imperative mood marker (Imp), the subjunctive mood marker (Sub), and the polar question particle (PQ). The pluractionality marker, either habitual (Hab) or not (NH), is suffixed to the initializer and followed by the tense marker (if any). However, if the initializer is unmarked, the pluractionality marker is suffixed to the tense marker. If the tense marker is also unmarked, the habitual marker is iz and the non-habitual is zero. The latter is also zero following a mood marker.
| Imp | Sub | PQ | DT | Fut | Prs | Exp | Eve | Pluractionality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| soz | ? | gwez | iz | # | mez | doz | paz | habitual |
| so | ? | gwé | 0 | # | mé | zí | pai | non-habitual |
| # | 0 | -gi | -me | -do | -pa | (marked on initializer) | ||
The tenses include present (Prs), definite past or future (DT), experiential past (Exp), eventual future (Eve), and sequential (Seq). The definite future marker (Fut, -gi) is used only in imperative mood.
Univalent nouns aren't inflected. Bivalent nouns take the following suffixed possessors: KS, KP, LS, LP, NP, SS, and Rfx (which coreferences a host argument); 3rd person possessors aren't marked on the noun. A univalent noun may be made bivalent using the prefix a-.
Dative-case and ergative-case personal pronouns are formed by combining the respective case particles with the personal suffixes. The form of disjunct or absolutive-case personal pronouns is yet to be determined.
page started: 2012.Jun.27 Wed
current date: 2012.Jul.01 Sun
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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