Nov19 –  A Constructed Language

Nov19 Inflectional Morphology

The end of a morpheme may interact with the start of the following morpheme. In particular:

Verb Morphology

Verb agreement has accusative alignment, with the subject matching the donor, agent, or subject role.

A fully inflected verb is organized as follows:

Root-Derivationals-Voice-Subject%#-Tense

Derivationals various derivational slots
Voice active (0-marked) or passive-anticausative
Subject%# subject person and number
Tense tense

Argument Structure

With respect to argument structure, there are 4 basic verb classes:

However, complicating this, some impersonal and univalent verbs can also have recipients.

Grammatical Voice

There are only 2 grammatical voices: active, which is unmarked and uses the argument structures described above, and passive-anticausative, which is marked by the suffix *wp (-Pas).

The passive-anticausative modifies the argument structure:

Subject Person and Number Suffixes

The imperative and hortative suffixes preclude tense marking.

Finite Subject Suffixes
Protoform Suffix Tag Description
*jk -ik -1S 1st person singular
*rnw -anu -1P 1st person plural
*wt -ut -2 2nd person
*r -a -3A 3rd person animate
*w -u -3I 3rd person inanimate
*en -en -SS same subject
*rnw-e -ame -Hor 1st person plural hortative
*e -e -Imp 2nd person imperative

With the following, tense is always 0.

Non-Finite Suffixes
Protoform Suffix Tag Description
*0 -0 .Cor other coreferential
*r -a -Ani participle animate
*w -u -Ina participle inanimate

Impersonal verbs have only 0 in the subject slot, representing the sole finite form. There are no participles or other coreferential forms.

Tense

Tense Suffixes
Protoform Suffix Tag Description
*0 -0 -Pst past
*hej -hê -Prs present < "now"
*jrt -yat -Fut future < "expect"

If no tense suffix appears, past time is indicated unless a temporal adverb referring to the future appears. However, only finite forms have any tense other than relative present.

Auxiliary Verbs

Certain coreferential auxiliary verbs may follow non-finite stems. These include the aspectual, modal, and polar auxiliaries, in that order.

Aspectual Auxiliaries

Aspectual Auxiliaries
Protoform Stems Description
*thwp sup, sub begin (process phase)
* - pause (process phase)
* - resume (process phase)
* - finish (process phase)
*twkw tugu, tugw repeat
*henr hena, heq continue

Modal Auxiliaries

Modal Auxiliaries
Protoform Stems Tag Description
*thj si, ç NP natural possibility or potential
*jwh yuh NN natural necessity or inevitability
*krh kah DP deontic possibility
*ken kon DN deontic necessity
*rjnt rint, rind SP social possibility
*wek wek, weg SN social necessity

Polarity

No auxiliary is used for positive polarity.

Polar Auxiliaries
Protoform Stems Tag Description
*tjk tik, tig Neg negative
*pwn pun Aff affirmative

The polar auxiliaries may combine with the preceding modal auxiliary. In the following table, the finite-participle stems are shown.

Auxiliary Combinations
  Pos Neg Aff
0 - tig- pun-
NP ç- sidig- sibun-
NN yuh- yuttig- yuppun-
DP kah- kattig- kappun-
DN kon- kondig- kombun-
SP rind- rintig- rintpun-
SN weg- wektig- wekpun-

Noun Morphology

Each noun is either animate or inanimate. With the exception of predicate nominals, nouns are inflected only for case. The cases are

Case Suffixes
Protoform Suffix Tag Description
*0 -0 .Abs absolutive
*te -te, -de -Erg ergative (= instrumental)
*rn -an -Dat dative (animate only)
*eth -es -Gen genitive, animate
*phr -fa -Gen genitive, inanimate (originally partitive)
*kj -ki, -gi -Com comitative (animate only)

Animate nouns ending in *j, *w, or *r double this before the genitive or dative ending except when preceded by *e, e.g. fimâça (absolutive) and fimâçares (genitive). This applies to animate participles as well, which are declined as follows:

Participle Declensions
  -Abs -Erg -Dat -Gen -Com
-Ani -a -ade -aran -ares -agi
-Ina -u -ude - -ufa -

In addition to the cases listed above, there are spatial verb derivations which seem to act like cases.

Predicate Nominals

A noun may also take verb endings, specifically subject person and number and tense. The doubling rule may apply here as well.

Pronoun Morphology

Proclitic Object Pronouns

Any of the following proclitic pronouns will appear instead of the absolutive patient argument. 3I- will appear instead of the absolutive theme argument while any of the others will appear instead of the dative recipient argument. Where both appear, the recipient proclitic precedes the theme proclitic.

Proclitic Object Pronouns
Protoform Pronoun Tag Description
*jk ik-, ig- 1S- 1st person singular
*rnw anu-, am- 1P- 1st person plural
*wt ut-, ud- 2- 2nd person
*r a-, r- 3A- 3rd person animate
*w u-, w- 3I- 3rd person inanimate
*en en- SS- same subject
*trh tah- Rfx- reflexive

Free Personal Pronouns

The same pronominal roots are used with the case endings:

Free Personal Pronouns
  -Abs -Erg -Gen -Com
1S iga ikte igos ikki
1P ama anude ames anugi
2 uda utte udes utki
3A â ade res agi
3I - ude ufa -
SS ena ende enes engi
Rfx taha tatte tahes takki

Additional Pronouns

Additional pronoun roots include

Additional Pronoun Roots
Protoform Tag Description
*tje CQ content question
*ke RP relative pronoun
* Sat satisfactive

Additional Pronouns
  -Abs -Erg -Dat -Gen -Com
CQA câde ceran ceres câgi
CQI côde - côfa -
RPA kâde koran kores kâgi
RPI kôde - kôfa -

The spatial verb derivational suffixes are applied to CQ and RP, even though the inanimate stem is implied.


page started: 2013.Nov.22 Fri
current date: 2013.Nov.26 Tue
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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