There are four types of morphemes: roots, prefixes, particles, and special.
A word consists of either one or more prefixes followed by a special morpheme, one or more prefixes followed by one or more roots, two or more prefixes, or a particle.
There are three classes of roots: verbs, adjectives, and common nouns. Roots can be homophonous; a given root may have a denotation in any or all classes; these denotations may also be unrelated to each other. The denotation in effect for a given word is determined by the prefix immediately preceding the root.
There are four adjective-marking prefixes:
| Prefix | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|
| lu- | Pos- | positive (comparison) |
| mo- | Cpr- | comparative |
| pi- | Equ- | equative |
| do- | Sup- | superlative |
Each of these forms a predicate stem which is equivalent to a univalent static verb root.
A common-noun denotation is marked by either a determiner or a copular prefix.
| Prefix | Tag | Name | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| da-, 0- | Def- | definite | determiner |
| se- | S- | indefinite singular | |
| ba- | P- | indefinite plural | |
| ne- | NR- | non-referential | |
| cu- | CQ- | content question | |
| ji- | DC- | definite complement | copular |
| fo- | IC- | indefinite complement |
The copular prefixes form predicate stems which can take some of the verb prefixes while the determiners may be preceded by case markers, after which the definite prefix is unmarked.
A proper noun always uses the prefix li- (PN-) immediately before the special morpheme. This may be preceded by either the definite copular ji- (DC-) or an appropriate case marker.
The noun cases are shown in the following table:
| Prefix | Tag | Name | Basic Usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| xi-, 0- | Nom- | nominative | subject |
| 0- | Acc- | accusative | direct object |
| be- | Ins- | instrumental | instrument |
| i- | Dat- | dative | indirect object |
| su- | Gen- | genitive | possessor etc. |
| ja- | Par- | partitive | whole |
| o- | Voc- | vocative | addressee |
| di- | Tmp- | temporal | time when |
The unmarked form of the nominative is used on inanimate nouns while the prefix appears on animate nouns. The partitive is used only on mass nouns and plural count nouns.
Pronouns are constructed from prefix morphemes and are inflected for case. The following table shows the stem (accusative case) of each personal pronoun:
| Stem | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| mi- | 1S- | 1st person singular |
| gami- | 1XP- | 1st person exclusive plural |
| gawa- | 1NP- | 1st person inclusive plural |
| wa- | 1ND- | 1st person inclusive dual |
| tu- | 2S- | 2nd person singular |
| batu- | 2P- | 2nd person plural |
| ka- | 3AS- | 3rd person animate singular |
| baka- | 3AP- | 3rd person animate plural |
| ki- | 3IS- | 3rd person inanimate singular |
| baki- | 3IP- | 3rd person inanimate plural |
| ku- | 3M- | 3rd person mass |
As with nouns, the personal pronouns are preceded by the case prefixes.
When unstressed and immediately following the verb, enclitic forms of the nominative singular personal pronouns may be used. In these, the nominative case prefix is reduced to x. For the inanimate and mass pronouns, the stem form is used as the enclitic. Similarly, when unstressed and immediately following the possessum, enclitic forms of the genitive singular personal pronouns may be used, with the case marker reduced to s. These contractions may also occur with the 1st person inclusive dual forms.
The other pronouns are also inflected for case. They include:
| Stem | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| na | RP | relative pronoun |
| cuka | CQA | content question, animate |
| cuki | CQI | content question, inanimate |
The verb class is indicated by the lack of a distinguishing noun or adjective prefix. The order of verb prefixes is:
Mode- Subject- Aspect- Polarity- Object- Derivation- Root
Mode is a fusion of syntactical function and mood.
| Prefix | Tag | Mood | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| e- | Fac- | factual | main |
| a- | Ctf- | contafactual | |
| ce- | FPQ- | factual polar question | |
| ca- | CPQ- | contrafactual polar question | |
| sa- | Imp- | direct command | |
| qo- | Jus- | indirect command, wish, etc. | |
| yu- | Opt- | hypothetical | subordinate |
| xo- | Sub- | actual | |
| ya- | Rsl- | actual | resultative |
| po- | Dep- | actual | depictive |
| hu-, 0- | Att- | actual | attributive |
The attributive is marked only if no other prefix appears.
The subject is either xa- (SS-, same subject), or unmarked (different subject). If different subject is indicated, the subject appears as a phrase in the nominative case.
The term same subject means that the subject is implicit and coreferences either the subject of the preceding clause or the agent of the matrix clause. If the mode is depictive or resultative, the SS- prefix isn't used, since the the subject must coreference an argument of the host clause.
The possible aspects depend on the verb's action type. If the verb is dynamic, the aspects are future, present, perfect or aorist, the last being unmarked. If the verb is static, the aspects are future, present, or perfect, the present being unmarked.
| Prefix | Tag | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| bu- | Fut- | future | The situation always occurs after the time reference. |
| fi-, 0- | Prs- | present | The situation is always in progress at the time reference. |
| te- | Prf- | perfect | The situation always occurs before the time reference. |
| 0- | Aor- | aorist | The situation time depends on the mode. |
If an object or other prefix appears between it and the root, the polarity prefix acts like the root of a separate word but if no prefix appears, it does act as a prefix, connecting directly to the root.
| Marker | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | positive (polarity) | |
| nno | Neg | negative |
| ?? | Aff | affirmative |
The object marker is either the accusative form of a personal pronoun, the accusative form of the relative pronoun, a grammatical voice prefix, or null. The grammatical voice prefixes are all valence-decreasing, so an accusative object phrase can appear only if the object marker is null and the verb is bivalent. If the verb is univalent, the object marker must be null.
| Prefix | Tag | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0- | active | subject acts on object | |
| we- | Ant- | antipassive | subject acts on indefinite patient |
| go- | Pas- | passive | subject is acted on by indefinite agent |
| qe- | Rfx- | reflexive | subject acts on self |
Probably, the reflexive voice prefix is really a reflexive pronoun.
Some derivation, primarily those that can apply to adjectival forms, is done by prefixes.
| Root | Tag | Name | Derives | Applies To |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ?- | Inch- | inchoative | dynamic verb | static verb |
| ?- | Hab- | habitual | static verb | verb |
These derivational morphemes are roots rather than prefixes. As with other roots, they can derive a common noun, adjective, or verb, depending on the determining prefix. Unlike other roots, a derivational morpheme (once its class is determined) determines the class of the following root.
| Root | Tag | Name | Derives | Applies To |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ??- | Pot- | potential | static verb | verb |
| ??- | Agt- | agent | animate noun | verb |
| ??- | PtA- | patient | animate noun | verb |
| ??- | PtI- | patient | inanimate noun | verb |
| ??- | Prd- | product | inanimate noun | verb |
| ??- | ?- | instrument | inanimate noun | verb |
| ??- | ?- | location | inanimate noun | verb |
A compound consists of two (or more) roots; its meaning is lexicalized and only the class of the first root can be determined.
page started: 2013.Aug.09 Fri
current date: 2013.Aug.12 Mon
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
Table of Contents