The order of words in a phrase is
(Case) (Determiner) (Quantifier) Noun (Attributives) (RelativeClause)
*** The position of the Quantifier may change! ***
| hmkos horte | |||
| "the old house" | |||
| h- | mkos | hort | -e |
| Def- | house | old | -Att |
A partitive construction consists of a quantifier followed by a genitive phrase.
| pere thser | |||
| "one of the men" | |||
| per | -e | t- h- | ser |
| 1 | -Att | Gen-Def- | man |
An ordinal construction consists of the following:
Determiner (Quantifier) OrdinalNumber GenitivePhrase
| hmspere thtem | ||||
| "the 1st woman" | ||||
| h- ms- | per | -e | t- h- | tem |
| Def-Ord- | 1 | -Att | Gen-Def- | woman |
The proclitic definite article h is also used before adjectives to form the superlative. The superlative construction consists of a such a superlative adjective placed before a genitive noun phrase, which must have a determiner here.
| hkorpe thkeht | ||||
| "the heaviest (of the) cat(s)" | ||||
| h- | korp | -e | t- h- | keht |
| Def- | heavy | -Att | Gen-Def- | cat |
| hhorte tkete kopt | ||||||
| "the oldest of these rocks" | ||||||
| h- | hort | -e | t- | ket | -e | kopt |
| Def- | old | -Att | Gen- | this | -Att | rock |
The order of phrases within a clause is
Tense/Mood (Agent) (Polarity) Verb (Patient) (Theme) (Secondary)
Agent and Patient are indexed on the verb (3S or 3P); Theme isn't.
Polarity is koe if negative (Neg) and unmarked if positive.
Tense/Mood normally consists of either a tense marker or a conjunction, to which an enclitic mood marker may be attached. The tenses and conjunctions are:
| Tag | Form | Description | Clause Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prs | pm | present tense | main |
| Pst | pk | past tense | |
| Fut | ps | future tense | |
| And | pr | and/then | conjunct |
| If | om | while/when/if | adjunct |
| Aft | ok | after | |
| Bef | os | before |
A clause introduced by pr is called a conjunct clause; its host is the preceding conjunct clause if any or the main clause (which is introduced by a tense form).
The mood enclitics are:
| Tag | Enclitic | Mood |
|---|---|---|
| -Act | -0 | actual |
| -Hyp | -me | hypothetical |
| -Ctf | -ke | contrafactual |
The imperative mood particle se is used instead of Tense/Mood. Normally, only transitive verbs and active verbs can be used with the imperative, with the latter taking the S-V forms instead of the usual V-S forms. The 2nd person agent prefix is normally omitted for imperative usage.
| se koe tomko hkeht! | |||||
| "Don't kick the cat!" | |||||
| se | koe | tomk | -o | h- | keht |
| Imp | Neg | kick | -3S | Def- | cat |
There are two kinds of secondary predicates: resultatives and depictives; both use coreferential verb forms.
A resultative is marked with HP, and specifies a situation resulting from the action denoted by the host clause.
| pk hser otomko kopt pokoro hmkos. | ||||||||||||
| "The man kicked a rock into the house." | ||||||||||||
| pk | -0 | h- | ser | o- | tomk | -o | kopt | po- | kor | -o | h- | mkos |
| Pst | -Act | Def- | man | 3S- | kick | -3S | rock | HP- | in | -3S | Def- | house |
A depictive is marked with either HP or HA, and specifies a situation current with respect to the action denoted by the host clause. In 9D, depictives with HP are limited to either those whose hosts are stative verbs or comparison clauses. Note that depictives with active verb hosts take HA.
Both comparative and equative clauses use the positive form of the quantity word with a secondary predicate providing the standard of comparison. The verb mos is used for comparatives and the verb sem for equatives. Note that the person prefix indicates whether the agent or patient is the subject of comparison.
| pm horto hkopt pomoso hkeht. | ||||||||||
| "The rock is older than the cat." | ||||||||||
| pm | -0 | hort | -o | h- | kopt | po- | mos | -o | h- | keht |
| Prs | -Act | old | -3S | Def- | rock | HP- | Cmp | -3S | Def- | cat |
| pk hkeht okoro hmkos. | ||||||||
| "The cat was in the house." | ||||||||
| pk | -0 | h- | keht | o- | kor | -o | h- | mkos |
| Pst | -Act | Def- | cat | 3S- | in | -3S | Def- | house |
For predicate possession, the verb top "have" is used, regardless of the definiteness of the patient.
| pm ktopo keht. | ||||||
| "I have a cat." | ||||||
| pm | -0 | k- | top | -o | 0- | keht |
| Prs | -Act | 1S- | have | -3S | Ind- | cat |
| pm ktopo hkeht. | ||||||
| "The cat belongs to me." | ||||||
| pm | -0 | k- | top | -o | h- | keht |
| Prs | -Act | 1S- | have | -3S | Def- | cat |
The same verb is used without an agent for existence:
| ps topo hete mkos. | |||||||
| "That house will exist." | |||||||
| ps | -0 | 0- | top | -o | het | -e | mkos |
| Fut | -Act | U- | have | -3S | that | -Att | house |
Clauses of definition and identity have no verb (0-copula); the subject is followed directly by the complement, except that the negative polarity particle koe may appear. The tense is normally present.
| pm mete keht [koe] kopt. | |||||||
| "This cat is [not] a rock." | |||||||
| pm | -0 | met | -e | keht | [koe] | 0- | kopt |
| Prs | -Act | this | -Att | cat | [Neg] | Ind- | rock |
The participant nominalization prefixes may be used as generic nouns:
| pk hkes roh? | ||||
| "Who did it?" | ||||
| pk | -0 | h- | kes | roh |
| Pst | -Act | Def- | AgtN | who |
| ps htom pok. | ||||
| "The result will be a book." | ||||
| ps | -0 | h- | tom | pok |
| Fut | -Act | Def- | PrdN | book |
Polar questions place the PQ particle rh before the Tense particle.
| rh pm stopho keht? | ||||||
| "Do you have cats?" | ||||||
| rh | pm | -0 | s- | top | -ho | keht |
| PQ | Prs | -Act | 2S- | have | -3P | cat |
A content question contains one of the CQ words, currently roh "who(m)", reh "what", and ret "which", "where". The question phrase isn't fronted.
| pk shsko reh? | |||||
| "What did you hear?" | |||||
| pk | -0 | s- | hsk | -o | reh |
| Pst | -Act | 2S- | hear | -3S | what |
| pm reto hkeht tek? | |||||||
| "Where's my cat?" | |||||||
| pm | -0 | ret | -o | h- | keht | t- | ek |
| Prs | -Act | where | -3S | Def- | cat | Gen- | 1S |
page started: 2011.Dec.03 Sat
current date: 2011.Dec.16 Fri
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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