new language Beta: Morphology
2006-Jan-12, Thursday 17:19![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qiihoskehLast Edited: 2006.Apr.01 Sat
Notes:
(1) These are used only on lexical nouns and when no override is needed.
(2) These are marked on lexical nouns only for override purposes.
(3) *-ht and *-kp are derivational rather than inflectional. ???
|ye-| is used when both subject and object are unspecified.
When the subject is dual, a pronoun must be used.
When both "objects" of a ditransitive word appear as actants, the inanimate prefix precedes the animate prefix. The prefix |du-| is used when the inanimate argument is coreferential.
(1) The suffix |-se| appears on stems other than lexical verbs when used as syntactical verbs with no other actant suffix applied.
(1) The absolute past prefix may be omitted if a non-present time phrase is used.
(2) gw- and j- are used before dissimilar vowels.
Inflectional Morphology
Most of the affixes are here ...Notes:
- So far, the tables mostly don't take into account the phonetic changes which are due to the different stems to which the affixes are applied. However,
- In the tables, where two affixes are separated by a slash, the second occurs before dissimilar vowels.
Word Classification
- Lexical classes and syntactical classes are similar but distinct: syntactical classes apply to complete word forms and are relevent syntactically; lexical classes apply to word stems and are relevent morphologically. There is also a classification based on valence.
- The lexical classes are: verbs, prepositions, nouns (subdivided according to gender), temporal stems, instrumental stems, manner adverb stems, possibly other inflected stems, and particles.
- The genders are animate, inanimate, and location.
- Lexical adjectives are a subclass of lexical verbs.
Syntactical Word Classes
- The major syntactical classes are: verbish forms, nounish forms, and particles. Also significant are whether or not the Auxiliary affix is present and whether Coreference is marked (or implied).
- Verbish forms are divided into principle verbs, adjunct(?) verbs, prepositions, complement verbs, and infinitives.
- Nounish forms are divided into noun forms, temporal forms, instrumental forms, manner adverb forms, and possibly other inflected forms.
- Noun forms are subdivided into subject forms and object forms, the latter being distinguished by gender.
- Forms with Coreference are used for nouns, infinitives, and prepositions; forms without are used for principle verbs, complement verbs, and adjunct(?) verbs.
Noun Inflections
These are the inflections applied to words making them syntactical nouns.| Form Class | Sing. | Plur. | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subject | -e | -ei | |
| Object | - | -i | (1) |
| Animate | -k | -ci | (2) |
| Inanimate | -m | -mi | |
| Location | -u | ||
| Time | (-hto) | (-hti) | (3) |
| Instrument | (-kpo) | (-kpi) | |
| Manner | -??? | ||
(1) These are used only on lexical nouns and when no override is needed.
(2) These are marked on lexical nouns only for override purposes.
(3) *-ht and *-kp are derivational rather than inflectional. ???
Verb Inflections
These are the inflections applied to words making them syntactical verbs. The dual forms are limited to matched pairs (inanimate) or couples (the others).| Object | Subject | Imperative | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sing | Plur | Dual | Sing | Plur | Sing | Plur | |
| 1X | t- | ti-/ty- | tir- | -te | -tei | ||
| 2X | h- | xi-/x- | xir- | -he | -hei | he- | he- + -i |
| 2N | li-/ly- | lir- | -lei | le- + -i | |||
| 3A | k- | ci-/c- | cir- | -ke | -kei | ||
| 3I | m- | mi-/my- | mir- | -me | -mei | ||
| 3L | u-/w- | -we | |||||
| CC | z- | ||||||
| COA | f- | ||||||
| Uns | i-/y- | ||||||
| Rfx | de- | ||||||
|ye-| is used when both subject and object are unspecified.
When the subject is dual, a pronoun must be used.
When both "objects" of a ditransitive word appear as actants, the inanimate prefix precedes the animate prefix. The prefix |du-| is used when the inanimate argument is coreferential.
| Form Class | Prefix | Suffix | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principle | -se | (1) | |
| Adjunct(?) | p- | ||
| Preposition | -f | ||
| Complement | s- | ||
| Infinitive | -s |
(1) The suffix |-se| appears on stems other than lexical verbs when used as syntactical verbs with no other actant suffix applied.
Role Inversion
Inversion is when the role that normally is matched with the suffix argument is matched with the prefix argument and vice-versa. It's marked as follows:- |-un| is added before the suffix actant of a verb-form.
- |-un| is added after the suffix of a noun-form.
- The prefix actant takes the form normally used for suffixes.
Tense, Aspect, and Mood
These are divided into three groups: mood, absolute time, and aspect/relative time. At most, one from each group may occur, in that order. Absolute times are definite and relative times indefinite.| er- | hypothetical mood | |
| ht- | absolute past | (1) |
| fid- | absolute future | |
| bu- (gw-) | relative past | (2) |
| ji- (j-) | relative future | (2) |
| gwen- | retrospective aspect | |
| jen- | prospective aspect | |
| en- | imperfective aspect or continuing aspect |
(1) The absolute past prefix may be omitted if a non-present time phrase is used.
(2) gw- and j- are used before dissimilar vowels.
Derivational Morphology
Adjective Markers
| de- + -zg | Evolutive |
| -zg | Comparative |
| Superlative | |
| -sp | Satisfactive/Excessive |
| ? | Neutral |
| ? | Low Precision |
| ? | High Precision |
| jiz- ? | Inceptive (?) |
| gwiz- ? | Cessative (?) |
| kad- ? | Viative |
| pr- | How? (to what degree?) |
