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K4 Verb Morphology
2012-Jun-27, Wednesday 02:36The verb stem (a root possibly with a derivational prefix) is modified for the semantic role of the subject. This is done by replacing one of the stem short vowels (the prefix vowel if any, else the last vowel of the root including otherwise deleted vowels) with a long vowel or diphthong. There are 4 roles: AGT (actor/agent/donor), PAT (patient/theme), LOC (location/recipient), and neutral (unmarked).
Like K3, K4 uses a K/L person system (see previous entry). These appear as affixes. The possible person and number combinations are KS (K-person Singular), KP, LS, LP, NP, and SS (Same Subject, technically 3rd person but not treated as such). There's also a Reflexive suffix.
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/recipient appears first and any agent/donor appears last (K# and NP naturally don't appear as suffixes here).
Imperative Order forms are a subset of the Independent Order forms; the difference in interpretation is due to the context.
Participial Order forms use a coreferential prefix: either HA (Host Agent) or HP (Host Patient). The suffixes may include K# and NP as well as the others. The neutral stem isn't used.
Attributive Order forms are like Participial Order forms except that the coreferential prefixes are replaced by aspect prefixes, these being RET (retrospective), IPF (imperfective), and PRO (prospective) for dynamic verbs. Static verbs usually take the STA (stative) prefix.
Like K3, K4 uses a K/L person system (see previous entry). These appear as affixes. The possible person and number combinations are KS (K-person Singular), KP, LS, LP, NP, and SS (Same Subject, technically 3rd person but not treated as such). There's also a Reflexive suffix.
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/recipient appears first and any agent/donor appears last (K# and NP naturally don't appear as suffixes here).
Imperative Order forms are a subset of the Independent Order forms; the difference in interpretation is due to the context.
Participial Order forms use a coreferential prefix: either HA (Host Agent) or HP (Host Patient). The suffixes may include K# and NP as well as the others. The neutral stem isn't used.
Attributive Order forms are like Participial Order forms except that the coreferential prefixes are replaced by aspect prefixes, these being RET (retrospective), IPF (imperfective), and PRO (prospective) for dynamic verbs. Static verbs usually take the STA (stative) prefix.
