May14 doesn't mark tense on the verb; absolute time is specified using temporal adverbs. Except for imperative mood, mood isn't marked on the verb either. However, a verb can have 5 or 6 aspects, marked by prefixes. Static verbs are marked for experiential, retrospective, prospective, and eventual aspect with stative aspect unmarked. Dynamic verbs are marked for progressive, experiential, retrospective, prospective, and eventual aspect with aoristic aspect unmarked. Both can also take the imperative mood prefix (which precludes aspect marking).
| Prefix | Tag | Aspect or Mood |
|---|---|---|
| ?- | Exp- | experiential |
| ?- | Eve- | eventual |
| na- | Ret- | retrospective |
| fo- | Pro- | prospective |
| ji- | Prg- | progressive |
| s(e)- | Imp- | imperative mood |
There are 3 core argument roles, labeled agent, patient, and theme. The appearance of the arguments and their matching to the roles depends on the verb's argument structure class. There are 5 lexical classes.
These verbs lack arguments, so agreement is always unmarked.
| den. | rain:v0 | "It rained." |
|---|
There are 2 kinds of univalent verbs: agentive and patientive.
There are 3 person-number suffixes used on agentive verbs: -1S.D, -1P.D, and -2.D with 3rd person (3.D) unmarked. They specify the person and number of the sole argument.
| tipa daage. | run:v2:3.D dog | "The dog ran." |
|---|
The person-number suffixes used on patientive verbs are 3 different ones: -1S.I, -1P.I, and -2.I with 3rd person (3.I here) unmarked.
| silfi kaafii. | hot:v2:3.I coffee | "The coffee is hot." |
|---|
Transitive and relational verbs are bivalent. In the latter case, the location is treated as the patient and the subject as the agent.
Bivalent verbs use both sets of univalent suffixes with -3.I marked here (3.D is still unmarked). These specify the 1st argument of 2 (A1) with the 2nd argument (A2) 3rd person in each case. The agentive suffixes act as direct person-number combination markers while the patientive suffixes act as inverse person-number combination markers. There are 4 additional person-number combinations: -1S.D.2, -1P.D.2, -1S.I.2, and -1P.I.2 (A1 is 1st person and A2 is 2nd person).
In direct alignment, A1 is used for the agent and A2 for the patient while in inverse alignment, A1 is used for the patient and A2 for the agent.
| hoxatuu. | hoxa-tuu | hear:v4-1S.D.2 | "I hear you." |
|---|
Trivalent verbs use the same person-number combination suffixes as bivalent verbs. They have a 3rd argument A3 which is always 3rd person and not marked on the verb. A3 always has the theme role.
| jookii tabri. | joo-kii tabri | give:v5-1S.I.2 book | "You gave me the book." |
|---|
| Direct | Inverse | A1 | A2 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suffix | Tag | Suffix | Tag | ||
| -mi | -1S.D | -ko | -1S.I | 1st person singular | 3rd person |
| -tuu | -1S.D.2 | -kii | -1S.I.2 | 1st person singular | 2nd person |
| -ma | -1P.D | -za | -1P.I | 1st person plural | 3rd person |
| -hoo | -1P.D.2 | -zee | -1P.I.2 | 1st person plural | 2nd person |
| -se * | -2.D | -ha | -2.I | 2nd person | 3rd person |
| -ve * | -3.D | -bo * | -3.I | 3rd person proximate | 3rd person obviative |
| *
2.D = 0 when the imperative mood prefix appears 3.D = 0 except on patientive verbs 3.I = 0 on patientive verbs | |||||
The copula ja (Cop) is morphologically a static patientive verb; it marks the person and number of the subject but not the complement.
| jako kiti. | ja-ko kiti | Cop-1S.I cat | "I am a cat." |
|---|
There's an additional suffix slot used with certain argument structure and person-number combinations used for marking the verb as reflexive (-Rfx) or reciprocal (-Rcp). The argument structure classes are v2 and v3 and the person-number combinations for reflexives are 1S.D, 1P.D, 2.D, and unmarked (3.D) while those for reciprocals are 1P.D, 2.D, and unmarked (3.D); both agent and patient roles must be defined for the particular verb stem (true for bivalent and trivalent verbs).
| Suffix | Tag | Name |
|---|---|---|
| -i | -Rfx | Reflexive |
| -r | -Rcp | Reciprocal |
| degataimi | dega-ta-i-mi | see-v2-Rfx-1S.D | "I see myself." |
|---|---|---|---|
| degatarma | dega-ta-r-ma | see-v2-Rcp-1P.D | "We saw each other." |
In imperative mood, one of the arguments is always 2nd person with 2.D unmarked. The possible person-number suffixes are -1S.I.2 and -1P.I.2; reflexive and reciprocal marking is also possible. The argument structure can be any except v0.
page started: 2014.May.17 Sat
current date: 2014.May.22 Thu
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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