VOS: State Changes and Causatives

[qiihoskeh]

Last Edited: 2006.Aug.20 Sun

State Changes

The language has three state change prefixes which are applied to I-Verbs: ni-, indicating a change to a state, ho- indicating a change from a state, and kwa-, indicating a change to and then from a state. The resulting stems are P-Verbs.

ros-lu ne-borda ne-gatto.	"The cat is on the table."	(1)
(on)-3I Def-(table) Def-(cat)
ni-ros-lu ne-borda ne-gatto.	"The cat got onto the table."
to-(on)-3I Def-(table) Def-(cat)

There are special forms where location is involved. When the prefixes are added to the locative marker saa, the stems nis, hos, and kwas are formed.

Demonstratives

This section is here because most of the demonstratives are related to saa, nis, hos, and kwas. They're constructed using the bases sa-, ni, ho, and kwa- respectively to which personal morphemes are added. The latter indicate the person nearest the entities. NOTE: for actual motion, use nisam etc. instead of nim etc.

Location		Direction					Association
		to		from		via
sam	"here"	nim	"hither"	hom	"hence"	kwam	1st person exclusive
saha		niha		hoha		kwaha	1st person inclusive
sak	"there"	nik	"thither"	hok	"thence"	kwak	2nd person
sane		nine		hone		kwane	definite
sabi	"where"	nibi	"whither"	hobi	"whence"	kwabi	interrogative
							relative

The conjugations of these demonstratives are shown in the following tables.

Conjugation of Imperfective Demonstratives and Existential

Tense		Mood	só	sá	sam	sáha	sak	sáne	sábi
Definite	Present	Indicative	só	sá	sam	sáha	sak	sáne	sábi
	Past		sot	sat	samtu	sáhat	saktu	sánet	sábit
	Future		sóda	sáda	samta	sahada	sakta	saneda	sabida
		Imperative	sóde	sáde	samte	sahade	sakte	sanede	sabide
Indefinite	Past	Indicative	soi	sas	sámo	sáhao	ságo	sányo	sábyo
	Future		swá	sása	sáma	sáhaa	sága	sánya	sábya
		Imperative	swé	sáse	sáme	sáhai	ságe	sánye	sábye

Note that sam and sak are regular I-Verbs. Nim, nik, hom, hok, kwam, and kwak are regular P-Verbs.

Conjugation of Perfective Demonstratives

Tense		Mood	níha	níne	níbi
Progressive	Present	Indicative	paníha	paníne	paníbi
	Past		paníhat	panínet	paníbit
	Future		panihada	panineda	panibida
		Imperative	panihade	paninede	panibide
Definite	Past	Indicative	níhat	nínet	níbit
	Future		nihada	nineda	nibida
		Imperative	nihade	ninede	nibide
Indefinite	Past *	Indicative	níha	níne	níbi
	Future		níhaa	nínya	níbya
		Imperative	níhai	nínye	níbye

Causatives

The causative prefix xo- is added to P-Verbs to add an argument specifying the cause of the action etc. The original O1 becomes O1 and the original S becomes O2. An exception occurs when xo- is applied to an originally trivalent word: the original O2 is kept and the original O1 is lost. Another oddity is that if a 1st or 2nd person marker ends up as O2, any unspecified O1 must be indicated by the suffix -so. Examples:

ni-ros-lu ne-borda ne-gatto.	"The cat got onto the table."	(1)
to-(on)-3I Def-(table) Def-(cat)
xo-ni-ros-lu ne-borda ne-gatto ne-jikko.	"The boy put the cat on the table."
Caus-to-(on)-3I Def-(table) Def-(cat) Def-(boy)
mu-naf-ci Heeda.	"I saw Hedda."	(2)
1S-(see)-3A 3.Hedda
k-xo-naf-mu-c Heeda.	"You made me see Hedda."
2S-Caus-(see)-1S-3A 3.Hedda
m-mex-ku-l.	"I gave you it."	(3)
1S-(give)-2S-3I
xo-mex-mu-l Hwaani.	"John made me gave it away."
3.Caus-(give)-1S-3I 3.John
so-ba-hox-ku.	"You are being heard."	(4)
U-Ipf-(hear)-2S
m-pa-xo-hox-so-k.	"I am making you heard."
1S-Ipf-Caus-(hear)-U-2S

There's also a causative auxiliary verb xol-.