I was originally going to do a post on some more verb stuff, but I was reading my posts so far and I realized I never fully explained the word class distinction and the subtleties of verb transitivity, so I’m going to do that in this post. This post will be somewhat random and unorganized, but I just want to lay this out simply.
Word Classes, Semantics, and Transitivity
Noun and Verb Classes:
Lyran has two main open word classes, nouns and verbs. Nouns and verbs are based on roots, which are always monosyllabic in native words. Aside from that, there are little to no restrictions on the phonology of the roots, which can be open or closed syllables, and with any vowel quality or initial/final consonant, within the restrictions of normal syllables. Semantically, nouns and verbs have many similarities to what we may find in other languages, nouns referring to concrete objects, and verbs referring to states and activities. There are many things that don't correspond however, like numbers and emotions, which are expressed by verbs.
Distinguishing Noun and Verb:
While noun and verb might appear on first glance to be obviously distinct, there are many ways in which the distinction can become more confusing. Noun roots and verb roots can be used as both nouns and verbs, with little distinction between the possibilities of the two. In the English translation, noun roots acting as verbs acquire a meaning "to be X", while verb roots used as nouns acquire a meaning of "the Xing one".
ak'ááłka kʰų
3.SING.AN-be.red-OBJ.INTRS fire
a-k'ááł-kĭ kʰų
“The fire is red.”
akʰųka k'ááλ
3.SING.AN-fire-OBJ.INTRS be.red
a-kʰų-ka k'ááł
“The red thing is a fire/is burning.”
(These constructions are one of the reasons why Lyran does not have a single copula construction, with the jobs of Identity and Attribution being carried by nouns used as verbs, with Attribution with a co-referential dummy noun. Other jobs like Location and Benefaction are expressed by juxtaposition with certain noun cases.)
This feature is found in some Native North American languages, such as some of the Salish and Wakashan family. It might seem like this is simply a zero derivation process or something else in disguise, but there are ways in which this differs. Firstly, there are other derivational processes to derive nouns from verbs, independent of these features. Secondly, zero derivation typically only applies to some verbs and may have a vague or unpredictable meaning, whereas with this the meaning is highly consistent. In traditional Lyran grammatical studies, the lack of the distinction between noun and verb was followed, and scholars simply divided Lyran into roots and affixes, but there are several reasons why this distinction needs to be made.
1. TAM restrictions
The use of a noun as a verb may seem simple, but there are many scenarios where native speakers reject certain usages of them, especially with certain aspects. Tense is rather free in this regard, as is mood, but aspect is highly restricted. Noun roots used as verbs can only appear in the imperfective aspect for the first aspect slot, as shown in the examples below. Note that it can freely appear with the second aspect slot, due to the first being older and derived from older verb markers.
akʰųka k'ááλ
3.SING.AN-fire-OBJ.INTRS be.red
a-kʰų-ka k'ááł
“The red thing is a fire/is burning.”
*akųkʰpu k'ááλ
3.SING.AN-fire-OBJ.INTRS-PROG be.red
a-kʰų-kĭ-pW k'ááł
“*The red thing is being a fire/is burning.”
To express copular constructions like these, the verb root √a, meaning "exist" and used in existential constructions.
2. Case restrictions
Verb roots behaving as nouns also have many restrictions of their own, and will be rejected by native speakers otherwise. Verb roots behaving as nouns can only take the so-called "core cases", that is absolutive and ergative marking.
Qakʷaa
qa-kʷaa
ERG-ask.question
"The one who asked a question."
*Nikʷaa
ni-kʷaa
COM-ask.question
"With the one who asked a question."
To express these, a participle construction must be used, with a referential noun conjugating for case, number, and possession if necessary.
3. Reduplication
Reduplicating a root fully has many different meanings depending on the word classes of the roots in question. With nouns, it expresses a distributive, while with verbs it expresses the sense "to do very much, to do too much". This property is retained even if the noun or verb is acting like the other. Note that this is distinct from forms like the distributive and progressive in verbs, which are partially reduplicated.
ʔąąʔaač’aačł'a
ʔą-a-ʔaač’~ʔaač’-ł
1.SING.OBJ-3.AN.SIN.SUB-bite~very.much-TRANS
"They (sin.) bit me hard."
*ʔaač’aač ʔaʔaač’a
ʔaač’~ʔaač’ a-ʔaač’-ha
3.AN.SING.SUB-bite-HAB bite~very.much
"*The hard biting one bites."
Qaat'mąą ʔa
q’aat-0-mąą ʔa
DEIC.DIST-3.INAN.SING.SUB-ant thing
"That thing is an ant."
*Qaat'mąąmąą ʔax'ąą
q'aat-0-mąą~mąą ʔa-x'ąą
DEIC.DIST-3.INAN.SING.SUB-ant~DISTRIB thing-PLU
"*Those things (scattered about) are ants."
If necessary, a participle or derived form will be used for the gaps.
The Adjective Class:
The adjective class in Lyran is a small closed class of about 30 members, expressing concepts like dimension, age, value, physical property, and colour. They do not agree with the animacy, number, or case of the noun, and are invariable regardless of the noun modified and phonological elements surrounding it. Other semantic concepts expressed by adjectives in other languages use a combination of verb roots, adverbs, and incorporated adverbial markers. Grammatically, adjectives are similar to nouns; they cannot be used as predicates, and can be used as nouns without a noun to modify, meaning "the X one".
Distinguishing Adjective and Noun:
Adjectives used as nouns are much freer that verbs used as nouns. Adjectives used as nouns cannot take diminutives and augmentatives, and cannot form distributives, but can take all case and plurality marking.
Xą́ amaa
xą́ a-maa
old 3.SING.AN.SUB-mother
"The old person is my mother."
*Xą́jaλ amaa
xą́-jaλ a-maa
old-AUG 3.SING.AN.SUB-mother
"*The very old person is my mother."
Noun Classes:
Nouns can be divided into 2 broad groups, animate and inanimate. The categorization of nouns into these two classes is largely semantic, with all nouns referring to humans or otherwise related being animate, and all others being inanimate. The animate nouns can be divided into 2 subcategories, alienable and inalienable, depending on whether they can be possessed or have to be mandatorily. All inanimate nouns are alienable. The alienable nouns can be divided into three subcategories, body parts, familial terms, and relational nouns. The first two are very obviously semantic, but the third deserves some explanation. The class of relational nouns is a closed class of inalienable nouns that are used in possessive constructions to specify or otherwise describe a noun. One example is the noun
x'aa which is used to specify ethnic/cultural/religious/national groups. Most others are simply body part nouns however, that specify complex constructions that would otherwise need prepositions. Below is a graphic depiction of this system:
Code: Select all
Animate:
Alienable:
Inalienable:
Body Parts
Familial Terms
Relational Nouns
Inanimate:
Verb Transitivity Classes:
(Editor's Note: This section and the noun case section were based on a grammar of a Northeast Caucasian language I was reading called Hinuq, with amazingly complicated case roles.)
Verbs can be divided into five classes based on transitivity: intransitive, transitive, extended intransitive, extended transitive, and experiencer. This correlates somewhat with noun case marking, but is not related to the voice/valency marking, which will be discussed later in this section.
Intransitive:
Intransitive verbs are rather simple, and consist of solely an S argument marked for absolutive case. This argument can be optionally incorporated, creating an impersonal verb.
Transitive:
Transitive verbs are also rather simple, having an A and O argument, which are marked for ergative case and absolutive typically, but exceptions exist for the O. The O argument can be incorporated, leaving an intransitive verb.
Extended Intransitive:
Extended intransitive verbs have two arguments, one S and one E. E can be any oblique argument, but this is distinguished from normal intransitives in that this argument is mandatory. It can be any case that is not a core case, and cannot be incorporated. The S argument cannot be incorporated as well, and the E argument can only be if first applicativized. One common source of these verbs is motion verbs, which have a mandatory argument in any one of the locative cases.
Extended Transitive:
Extended intransitive verbs are verbs which are marked for transitive and have three arguments, A marked with ergative, O with absolutive, and E with any other. This is very analogous to English ditransitive verbs, such as give, show, and tell, all of which are extended intransitive. The argument for E here is always marked with the oblique agreement slot in the verb, which can fill any role. The role filled by E depends on the verb, and can be very different from English usage. For example, verbs divide into 2 semantic classes, TELL verbs, and SPEAK verbs. TELL verbs have their E argument as the recipient of the message, while SPEAK have the mode or language of the message, marked with dative and instrumental case specifically.
Experiencer:
Experiencer verbs are a closed class of verbs referring to observing, such as verbs like “see”, “know”, “feel”, “hear”, etc. These verbs are unique in that they are grammatically transitive, but their O argument is marked with the dative case, as is done in some other languages. This is still the O argument grammatically, as it can be passivized and incorporated, both leaving an intransitive clause.
Valency Marking:
Voice and valency marking is a set of markers inspired by the Athabaskan classifier system, but I haven’t properly thought about its ramifications until now. The stative and middle were somewhat ambiguous in verb derivation, so I’m fleshing them out.
Intransitive:
This is the simplest category and the most common one for verbs. It is a null affix that indicates the verb is either intransitive or extended intransitive, with one S argument marked in the verb, and some having an E.
Stative:
This category is a bit more ambiguous and arbitrary. All verbs in this category are simple intransitives with one S argument. It is used for most verbs that have a lack of volition, or some that are atelic. There are many exceptions however, for example, the stem čʰii-0, to flow (like running water). There are also many verbs that very their meaning depending one whether they are marked with intransitive or stative, for example, č'u-0 means to cry, while č'u-kĭ means to sneeze.
Transitive:
The transitive is also rather simple, expressing verbs that are either transitive or extended transitive. It is the second most common, and is rather stable. It can be removed from typically transitive verbs, forming something like an antipassive, but this is somewhat random and ambiguous. Some intransitive verb stems can also be used as transitive, but this is very uncommon.
Middle:
The middle voice is used for a small closed class of verbs whose roots vary between transitive and middle. It expresses verbs where the action is done to oneself, but typically without a reflexive meaning, as there are other reflexive markers. One example is the stem wáá-kĭ, which means “wash or clean” and wáá-s, which means, “to wash (oneself)”.
Voice Marking:
There are four voices marked on verbs in this category, active, passive, causative, and self-benefactive. The last technically doesn’t change the valency of the verb, but patterns into the voice markers. There is also another marker in the verb that indicates applicatives, but is unrelated.
Active:
This is the simplest of the voices, and is unmarked and uses all valencies.
Passive:
This is a simple passive construction for only transitive verbs, and does what you might expect for a passive. The demoted subject is marked with the perlative case.
Causative:
The causative is one element that has changed from my original post. The causative can now be used for all valencies, with the demoted subject is marked with the causative case.
Self-Benefactive:
This marker was originally a separate marker, but is now incorporated into the voice category. It expresses an action that is done for the benefit of the subject, but is distinct from the middle voice or reflexive markers. It is more common than one might expect, occurring when the corresponding oblique wouldn’t be used in English.
Noun Case Reform:
This is a small edit I've added to the noun case system. Firstly I've added a dative case, marked by nʰa~nʰ, and the antative and tergative cases are now prepositions tzʰu and qʷʰįį. That's all for now, next post probably back to the verb complex.