Minhast/Noun Incorporation

Types of Noun Incorporation

Mithun's Framework

Languages which employ NI do have alternative, analytic structures containing the same semantic information as an NI structure does. However, NI provides a way to manipulate discourse, reduce the salience of an entity in order that other entities can take precedence in extended speech, provide stylistic and rhetorical alternatives to their corresponding analytic expressions, and even derive new lexical items. Mithun (1984) has identified four categories of NI that occur cross-linguistically. The four categories Mithun has identified are:

1. Type I - Lexical Compounding: the creation of new lexical items by compounding a noun root and verb root;
2. Type II - Case Manipulation: a noun (usually a Patient, although Instrumental and Locative nouns may be involved) is incorporated into the verb complex. This is a valence operation: if the incorporated noun was originally a core argument, another argument can occupy the position vacated by the IN and assume core status. Alternatively, depending on the semantic nature of the verb, Oblique8 nouns that are Instruments, Locatives, or Goals may also be incorporated;9
3. Type III - Manipulation of Discourse: NI is used to background10 information in sections of the discourse so that other arguments are brought to the foreground. It allows speech participants to focus on the important entities within a particular passage of the discourse;
4. Type IV - Classificatory NI: Mithun describes this type of NI wherein a “...relatively general N(oun) stem is incorporated to narrow the scope of the V(erb)...but the compound noun stem can be accompanied by a more specific external NP which identifies the argument implied by the IN.”

Not all languages that employ NI exhibit all four types. For example, in the indigenous Brazilian language Karajá, NI is mostly restricted inalienably possessed nouns, particularly body parts, and does not alter valence, which by nature involves Type II case manipulation (Ribeiro 2001). Chukchi freely employs Type II NI to alter argument structure, Type III is attested per Mithun, but Type IV NI is absent (Modena & Muro). Nevertheless, languages that employ all four types of NI are found in disparate languages, including Mohawk, Caddo, and Gunwinggu. Minhast also falls within this group.

Type I Noun Incorporation

Minhast utilizes Type I NI to create lexical compounds but only if a particular activity, state, or event occurs frequently to warrant institutionalizing into the lexicon. Usually, one or both elements of the compound are shortened, as in the following examples:

5a) aydann- “To store water in a cistern, reservoir, or catch-basin” (derived from ayaya- “putsomething into a container” + dannua “water”) 5b) uzdann- → uzzat-dannua “To draw water from a well” (derived from uzzat- “to pull something out of a container or other enclosing object, e.g. an envelope” + dannua “water” Compounding NI is a derivational process. If the compound yields a new verb, it has the full status and capabilities of a verb not derived from compounding, including NI: 5c) Aydantayattaran → aydann-tayatta-ar-an “He poisoned the well” (lit. “He stored the water with poison).

Type II Noun Incorporation

As Mithun identified in Case Manipulation NI, an important function of IN IN Minhast is to alter the argument structure of a clause. The prototypical function of NI is to decrease the valency of a verb; the transitivity of a clause is decreased by removing one of the core arguments, namely the PT, and absorbing it into the verb. This opens up the Absolutive position to be occupied by another argument, either an oblique argument, or the Ergative argument. Returning back to Sentence 1a and 1b, the argument structure has been altered13 from a transitive clause in Sentence 1a to an intransitive one via the application of NI previously observed in Sentence 1b. Both sentences have been restated here as Sentences 5a and 5b:

5a) Yadukte kaslub ayuparu → yaduk=de kaslub ayup-ar-u (boy=ERG dog.ABS point.at-PST TRANS) “The boy pointed at the dog.” 5b) Yaduk ayukkaslubaran → yaduk ayup-kaslub-ar-an (boy.ABS point.at-dog-PST- INTRANS) “The boy pointed at a/the dog” (lit: “The boy dog-pointed”). The alteration of the argument structure from a transitive sentence to an intransitive one is pragmatically motivated and changes the nature of the discourse. The incorporation of the PT kaslub, both opens up the Absolutive position for occupation by another argument, in this case, the Agent yaduk. The incorporation of the Patient kaslub also backgrounds it, reducing its salience in the discourse. The Agent yaduk thus becomes more salient, as it has now become the sole core argument of the sentence. The result alters discourse by presenting the Agent as the most important element of the discourse, while that of the Patient has been reduced to a peripheral role. Patients are not the only arguments that can be subjected to NI. An interesting feature of NI in Minhast is that the semantic nature of a verb may allow certain non-PTs oblique arguments, namely Instrumentals and Locatives, to be incorporated. This is similar to Ainu, another polysynthetic 14 language of Northeast Asia unrelated to Minhast . Like Minhast, Ainu can target Instrumental arguments for NI, like sapa (“head”) underlined below in Sentence 5: 13 This is an instance of Case Manipulation NI, i.e. Mithun's Type II classification. 14 There still remain some die-hard advocates who group the two languages with Chutchki and Nivkh under a single family called Amuran, a reference to the Amur Riverine System. Surface similarities have been ascribed to areal features.

6) Ratki apa a-sapa-e-puni → hung door 1s.A-head-APPL-lift “I lifted the suspended door with my head.” (J. Runner & Raul Aranovich 2003). NI of Oblique arguments in transitive clauses does not affect valency, since the Absolutive position remains occupied by the PT. However, the incorporation of Instrumental and Locative arguments modify the meaning of the verb. Speakers are aware that in utilizing this form of NI, they are essentially creating new vocabulary on-the-fly. These new words may be created as one-time entities for the current speech event, or they may be institutionalized and become permanent vocabulary in the lexicon. Examples of Instrumental and Oblique NI are demonstrated in Sentences 6a – 6e: 7a) Yakte dūy kallutaššiakaru → yak=de dūy kallut-haššia-ak-ar-u (1S=ERG salmon.ABS eat- with.chopsticks-3P.INANIM.ABS+1S.ERG-PST-TRANS) – lit: “I eat.with.chopsticks the salmon.” 7b) Yak (dūyaran) kallutaššiekarampi → yak (dūy=aran) kallut-haššia-ek-ar-an-pi (1S.ABS (salmon=DAT) eat.with.chopsticks-1S.ABS-PST-INTRANS-ANTI) “I eat (some salmon) with chopsticks.” 7c) Yak asunkallutaššiekaran → yak kallut-haššia-ek-ar-an (1S.ABS HAB-eat.with.chopsticks- 1S.ABS-PST-INTRANS) “I eat/am eating with chopsticks.” 7d) Yak iknatūmanekaran → yak ikna-tūman-ek-ar-an (1S.ABS go-house-1S.ABS-PST- INTRANS) “I went home.” 7e) Yak ikassuhūrekaran → yak ikassu-hūr-ek-ar-an (1S.ABS rest-mountain-1S.ABS-PST- INTRANS) “I rested on the mountain.” The surfacing of the Antipassive in Sentence 7b illustrates that NI of Instrumentals, in this case haššia, does not and cannot decrease valency. Instead, Antipassivation is the only valency-decreasing operation available to reduce the valency of a verb whenever an Instrumental oblique argument is incorporated. Similarly, the incorporation of a Locative or Goal noun into a positional or locomotive verb does not affect valency, as in Sentence 7d and 7e. Sentence 7b illustrates that no discussion of Noun Incorporation in Minhast can be made without explaining the interrelation between NI and Antipassivation. Some polysynthetic languages use both NI and Antipassivation to manipulate argument structures. Minhast is among this group of languages. An observation noted among these languages with both NI and Antipassivation is that NI automatically triggers the Antipassive to surface, as demonstrated in Sentences 8a and 8b, taken from Nishga, a North American indigenous tribe of the Pacific Northwest (Mithun, 1984); and Sentences 8c and 8d, taken from Yucatec Mayan (Bricker, 1978):

8a) səməyé:n-sk -m-hó:n → simijeehisgumhoon to.smoke-ANTIPASS-ADJ-fish 'To smoke fish'
8b) íc'l-'sk -m-tá:la → lits'ilsgumdaala to. count. up-ANTIPASS-ADJ-money 'to keep track of money donated at a potlatch'
8c) t-in-č'ak-∅-ah če'. COMP-I-chop-it-PERF tree “I chopped a tree.”
8d) č'ak-če'-n-ah-en. Chop-tree-ANTIPASS-PERF-I(ABS) “I wood-chopped” = “I chopped wood.”

There are other languages that utilize both NI and Antipassivation where NI does not trigger the Antipassive to surface. The Northeast Asian language Chukchi, a branch of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan is such an example (Kozinsky 1976). Sentence 9a shows NI of an Instrumental noun without Antipassivation. However, Sentence 9b the Antipassive affix appears, but NI is absent because the Antipassive has demoted the PT qora to an oblique Instrumental argument. 9a) Kopalhin na-aldt-koqenat. → walrus.blubber they-knife-mincing “They are mincing walrus blubber with a knife.

9b) Ine-lqerir-ə-rkən (qora-ta). → APASS-seek-PRES-/3sS (deer-INSTR) “He is seeking (for deer).” These two examples demonstrate that NI and Antipassivation are two distinct processes in Chukchi, whereas in Yucatec Mayan they appear to be a unitary process, as they appear simultaneously. Like Chukchi, Minhast treats NI and Antipassivation as two separate, distinct processes. In Minhast, NI and Antipassivation may complement each other, and other times they may be mutually incompatible. Sentences 10a and 10b are presented below. Sentence 10a shows a situation where both NI of an Instrument and the surfacing of the Antipassive affix -pi- occur in the same sentence:

10a) Yak dūyaran kallutaššiekaranampamā, [PRO] yusnakekaran, wassetta. → yak dūy=aran kallut-haššia-ek-ar-an-pi=mā, [PRO] yusnak-ek-ar-an, wa=setta (1S.ABS salmon=DAT eat.with.chopsticks-1S.ABS-PST-INTRANS-ANTI=SUBORD, [PRO] be.late- 1S.ABS-PST-INTRANS, CONN=even.though) “I ate (some) salmon with chopsticks, even though I was late.” As mentioned earlier, incorporation of an Instrumental noun does not decrease valence, so Antipassivation was required to decrease the valency of Sentence 10a. Here, an Instrumental noun, haššia, has already been incorporated into the verb kallut (to eat). Since only one noun can be incorporated into a verb complex at any one time, the only way to reduce the valency of the clause is to apply Antipassivation to demote the semantic Patient dūy (salmon) from core status. The application of 15 The situation with Yucatec Mayan is somewhat more complicated. The language displays split ergativity conditioned by tense: Erg-Abs alignment is observed in the perfect aspect (glossed by Bricker as COMP “completive”), while Nom- Acc alignment is found in the imperfect aspect. This is why the Antipassive does not surface when NI occurs in the imperfect aspect, because Antipassives occur only in the Erg-Abs component of split ergative systems.

the Antipassive marker -pi has demoted dūy from core Absolutive status to a Dative oblique argument marked with the clitic =aran, the typical oblique marker used to mark demoted semantic Patients. Such an operation is required if the speaker wishes to convert yak to Absolutive status for syntactic reasons (e.g. to become the S/O pivot16 to feed into subordinate clauses, as in this case). In contrast, the situation in Sentence 10b shows NI of a Patient. Here, the NI of the Patient blocks Antipassivation: 10b) Yaduk ayukkaslubaran → yaduk ayup-kaslub-ar-an (boy.ABS point.at-dog-PST- INTRANS) – “The boy pointed at a/the dog” (lit: “The boy dog-pointed”). Here, the semantic Patient kaslub (dog) has been incorporated into the verb ayup (to point), but here the Antipassive does not surface. Nor can it without rendering the sentence ungrammatical, because Antipassivation reconfigures a sentence's argument structure by demoting or removing Patients. When kaslub was incorporated, there was no Patient available for the Antipassive to target because the Patient had already been removed from core status by NI. To illustrate the reason why Antipassivation was blocked by NI of a Patient, Sentence 10c presents a theoretical situation resulting from the application of Antipassivation after a Patient has been incorporated: 10c) **Yadukaran [missing ABS] ayukkaslubarampi → yaduk=aran [missing ABS] ayup- kaslub-ar-an-pi (boy.ABS point.at-dog-PST-INTRANS-ANTI)

Sentence 10c is ungrammatical because NI has already removed the PT (kaslub), resulting in a monovalent clause with only one core argument, the Absolutive (yaduk). Antipassivation would

  Sap min Aynuw-ast min gubbāturrād sattabe-

demote the Absolutive yaduk to a Dative peripheral argument, yadukaran, leaving no other argument to 17 fill in the missing Absolutive position. Minhast forbids zero-valent sentences , so the simultaneous application of NI and Antipassivation renders Sentence 10c infelicitous. Thus, both Minhast and Chukchi treat NI and Antipassivation as two separate, distinct operations. But whereas the Chukchi samples showed that the Antipassive does not surface when even an Instrumental noun is incorporated, Minhast allows Antipassivation of Instruments if valency reduction to demote a Patient is required, allowable provided the IN is an Instrumental argument. 16 A pivot is a syntactic construct in multi-clause sentences wherein the syntactic role of a core argument that has been omitted by PRO-drop, is recovered from its role in a higher level clause. There are two types of Pivots identified by Robert Dixon in Ergativity (1994): S/A Pivots and S/O Pivots. S/A Pivots, associated with Nominative-Accusative language, assign the Nominative argument as the argument (Pivot) that is coreferrent with the null argument of successive clauses. Syntactically Ergative languages, in contrast, assign the Absolutive as the Pivot of successive clauses. 17 There is one exception to this rule: Minhast has a closed set of Interrogative verbs, some of which take zero core arguments. -ar-an- =naft yak=de nusill-ek-u, ...[PRO

  = gubbāturrād] nurr-wastane-0-ek-nes-u-d

“Sap min Aynuw-ast min gubbāturrād

sattabe-redad-ar-an=naft yak=de nusill-ek-u”

The use of Case Manipulation accounts for the majority of NI in Minhast. This is not surprising, since Minhast, as a syntactically ergative language, utilizes various grammatical devices to maintain and manipulate the S/O pivot to cross-reference the Absolutive argument across clauses.

Type IV Noun Incorporation

• This is an example of Mithun's Classificatory NI (Class IV) being exploited by Minhast. Here, it is essentially creating the equivalent of a locative noun in other languages, e.g. English "Within the interior of the beast..." Here, nua means "side" has been incorporated into the verb complex. The implicit head is suharak (deerskin), which was mentioned in a previous line in the passage, referred to by the Locative applicative naħk-. This construction is equivalent to saying "Next to it", "By its side", etc.

Tayyamakim tayyapte suharak naħkixripuxnutartimmahabu
tayyamak min tayyap=de suharak naħk-xr-pux-nua-tar-timmah-ab-u
thunder CONN ball=ERG deerskin LOC.APPL-ITER-boom-side-3S.ANIM.ABS+3S.ANIM.ERG-IMPF-TRANS
Canonballs explode next to it the deerskin.

Truncation/Weak Suppletion

Most Minhast nouns are irregular in their IN forms, the majority of which exhibit what has been referred to among Minhast linguists as truncation, wherein the incorporated nominal appears in a shortened form from the reduction or loss of syllables. This process is more commonly referred to as weak suppletion (see also "Noun Incorporation: A New Theoretical Perspective", Alessio Muro, 2009). Cross-linguistically this process is seen in other languages such as Sora, an unrelated language from the Munda family in India. The first example shows the analytic version of the Sora sentence "Will they eat the buffalo/ Do they eat buffalo?". The second example shows the noun incorporated-version of the same sentence, where the independent word bɔŋtɛl ("buffalo") has lost its final syllable to create its incorporating form, bɔŋ:

bɔŋtɛlәnәdɔŋ jomtɛji pɔ
bɔŋtɛl-әn-әdɔŋ jom-t-ɛ-ji pɔ
buffalo-/әn/3-ACC eat-NPST-3S-PL.S Q
Will they eat the buffalo/ Do they eat buffalo?

jombɔŋtɛnji pɔ
jom-bɔŋ-t-ɛ-n-ji pɔ
eat-buffalo-NPST-3S-INTR-PL.S Q
Will they eat the buffalo/ Do they eat buffalo?

Similarly, Minhast INs exhibit weak suppletion, and it occurs extensively, particularly with nouns longer than two syllables, e.g. sussagarānī > -suggan- ("big toe").

Sussagarānītirektiki kahušnišattekaran.
sussagarānī-tirek=de=ki kah-ušn-šatt-ek-ar-an
big.toe-3SN.INAN.POSSM+1S.POSSR=ERG=LOC INV.VOL-hit-RFLX-1S.NOM-PST-TRNS
I banged myself against my big toe.

Kahušnisuggašnattekaran.
kah-ušn-suggan-šatt-ek-ar-an
INV.VOL-hit-toe-RFLX-1S.NOM-PST-TRNS
I stubbed my big toe.

Similar patterns can be found with hispawak > -hispak- ("birch"), and izzesparak > -spark- ("canoe").

The pattern of truncation is unpredictable; syllable loss may occur in initial, medial, or final positions, although noun roots with more than two syllables tend to lose either their medial or final syllables and retain the initial syllable, but exceptions abound, such as allāga > -lgagg- (conch) .

Noun Incorporation in Intransitive Verbs

Although noun incorporation in Minhast is prototypically associated with lexically transitive verbs, lexically intransitive verbs may also incorporate nouns. The processes by which NI in intransitive verbs can be divided into three major categories:

1. Nouns of non-Patient arguments (thematic relations)
2. Body Parts
3. Meteorological and other natural phenomena

Syntactic restrictions and other behaviours in intransitive NI otherwise that are extremely rare in transitive NI become more salient. Intransitive NI, where certain forms of irregularities occur, also reveal clues about the Proto-Nahenic ancestor that is more difficult to discern from transitive NI, as intransitive NI was more resistant to morphological leveling than transitive NI. This resistance can be attributed to the semantic features of the incorporated noun in the three aforementioned categories of intransitive NI.

Thematic Relations

In addition to incorporating semantic patients, which is what most people think about when talking about noun incorporation, is that Minhast, can incorporate a wider range of non-patient arguments, i.e. nouns with thematic relations differing from that of a semantic patient, can be incorporated into the Minhast verb.

Incorporated nouns interact with the semantics of its incorporating verb. Take for example the word kallutūyekaran (kallut-dūy-ek-ar-an), lit. "eat-fish-I-in.the.past-be". The incorporated noun is a semantic patient, and this is the prototypical type of noun incorporation that is seen most often in Minhast texts. In this example, incorporation of the patient noun has lowered the valency of the clause, as one would expect, and is further confirmed by the surfacing of the intransitive suffix -an.

Incorporation of Direction and Goal

Compare this with the transitive clause dūy kallutekaru < dūy kallut-ek-ar-un, lit. "Fish eat-I-in.the.past-do", a transitive clause wherein the transitive suffix -u also surfaces. Now compare this with the verb complex iknatūmanaran (ikn-tūman-ar-an), lit. "go-home-in.the.past-be". This time a noun (tūman "home"), whose incorporated noun's thematic role is that of Direction/Goal, has been incorporated. I.e. this isn't a semantically direct object incorporated into the verb; instead, a syntactically oblique argument has been incorporated into the verb complex. The non-incorporated form would be Tūman=aran iknaran (house-towards.it he went), and here we can see due to the postclitic directional case (usually called dative case) clitic =aran marks tūman "house" as an oblique argument, as it is not a core, absolutive argument.

Incorporation of Source

Classificatory noun incorporation, i.e. Type IV NI, occurs when the name of an overt toponym appears:

Kattek sap harraħketappekaru.
/kat:ek sap har:aħkɛtap:'ekaru/
kattek sap raħk-han-tappe-ek-ar-u
place.name this APPL.ABL-come-place-3MS.ACC+1S.NOM-PST-TRNS
I came from this place (called) Kattek.

Note that the Ablative Applicative has surfaced to promote the place, named "Kattek", from an ablative oblique argument, i.e. the Source, to a derived Absolutive. The incorporated noun tappe ("place, location"), has been incorporated to specify Kattek as a location. As Kattek is a proper noun, and proper nouns lie high on the animacy hierarchy, Type IV is allowed so that Kattek can be backgrounded and later retrieved as a core argument.

This example also illustrates how noun incorporation can trigger modifier stranding. In this example, the demonstrative sap has been stranded from its head tappe. The absence of the min Connective is indicative that stranding has occurred. Demonstratives, when acting as modifiers, require the min particle to join it to its NP head. As a stranded modifier, sap is treated as an adjunct, able to be placed anywhere in the clause, including in postverbal position as an anti-topic.

Incorporation of Location

Another example, where a noun whose thematic role is of a non-Patient role, but rather that of Location, can be incorporated by interaction with the semantics of a verb, is saššihurran (sašši-hūr-ar-an), lit. "sit-mountain-in.the.past-be". Its non-incorporated counterpart is hurki sašširan (hūr=ki sašši-ar-an), lit. "mountain=on sit-in.the.past-be". Notice that these verbs which are incorporating non-Patient nouns are usually locational, positional, or motion verbs. However, oblique noun incorporation in transitive verbs is also allowable, and the incorporated noun is usually an Instrument, e.g. Dūy kallustespirtirkaru "I ate the salmon with my hand(s)." The Patient argument dūy ("salmon"), retains its position as an independent noun phrase in the absolutive case, whilst the oblique argument sespir ("hand"), is an incorporated noun whose thematic role is that of Instrument. The valency of the sentence has not changed, as the transitive -u suffix is still retained.

Incorporation of Experiencers

Verbs that take as their core NP with the Experiencer thematic relation often incorporate oblique nominals, whose theta role of Source or Cause, to background them, thereby focusing on Experiencer. The following two examples, the first with no incorporation, and the second with incorporation of the oblique nominal tipr ("meat") are semantically equivalent. The difference between the non-incorporated and incorporated versions is one of discourse purpose.

In the first example, the speaker is explicitly adding information about the cause of his sickness, the meat (tipr), with the Ablative clitic =yār. Additionally, by explicitly mentioning the meat he is introducing new information, as it had not yet been introduced into the discourse:

1) Non-incorporated NP:

Tipiryār saxtikuldekaran
tipr=yār saxt-kuld-ek-ar-an
flesh=from INCH-sick-1S.NOM-PST-INTR
I became sick due to (infected) meat.

In the second example, another speaker's focus is on being sick. What caused her to be sick is of secondary importance, and there is an underlying assumption that both the speaker and the listener already know about the meat in question, either by previous discourse or other means. In this case, earlier in the week, the speaker and her brother had cleaned the refrigerator after an extended power outage. Unwilling to let an expensive cut of beef to go to waste, she foolishly ate it and got sick. Therefore, she chose to background the meat by incorporating the noun into the verb:

2) Incorporated NP:

Saxtikulittipirkaran
saxt-kuld-tipr-ek-ar-an
INCH-sick-flesh-1S.NOM-PST-INTR
I got sick from the (infected) meat.

Incorporation of Body Parts

Body parts are often incorporated in attributive verbs. The pronominal affix represents both the subject of the clause (i.e. the syntactic pivot), as well as the possessor of the incorporated body part:

Purrakyār saxtaharrumpakkaran.
purrak=yār saxt-tahal-ruppamak-ek-ar-an
dye=ABL INCH-be.green-face-1S.NOM-PST-INTR
My face became green from the dye (lit. "I became green face-wise from the pigment")

Overt NP possessors are stranded when their possessum is incorporated. In the next example, the overt possessor redad ("man") has been stranded after its possessum ruppamak ("face") was incorporated:

Redad purrakyār saxtaharrumpakkaran.
redad purrak=yār saxt-tahal-ruppamak-∅-ar-an
redad pigment=ABL INCH-be.green-face-3S.NOM-PST-INTR
The man's face became green from the dye (lit. "The man from the pigment became face-wise green")

Speakers consistently reject sentences such as the following. In this infelicitous sentence, the NP has full possessor-possessum marking and occurs outside the verb complex, while the material that made the speaker's face green has been incorporated as if it were Instrumental argument. The restriction appears to be semantic. Unlike other stative verbs, attributive verbs select for incorporation the affected noun, not the Source or Cause noun:

*Ruppamaktirekt saxtahalpurrakmaharan.
ruppamak-tirek=de saxt-tahāl-purrak-mah-ar-an
face-3NS.NOM+1S.NOM=ERG INCH-be.green-pigment-3NS.INAN.NOM-PST-INTR
(Intended): My face became green from the dye.

The correct version follows:

Purrakyār saxtaharrumpakekaran.
purrak=yār saxt-tahal-ruppamak-ek-ar-an
pigment=ABL INCH-be.green-face-1S.NOM-PST-INTR
My face became green from the dye (lit. "I became green-faced from the pigment.")

Interaction with Applicatives

Interestingly, applicatives can be added to incorporating stative verbs to promote the oblique nominal whose thematic relation is that of Cause or Source. The Ablative Applicative -raħk- is usually selected for this operation. When the applicative is applied, the oblique nominal argument purrak is promoted to Absolutive status, thereby increasing the valency; nevertheless, the verb remains intransitive:

Purrak saxtiraħkitaharrumpakekaran.
purrak saxt-raħk-tahal-ruppamak-ek-ar-an
pigment=ABL INCH-be.green-APPL.ABL-face-1S.NOM-PST-INTR
My face became green from the dye (lit. "Because of the pigment, I became green-faced.")

Incorporation of Meteorological Events and Other Natural Phenomena

Some natural phenomenon, like meteorological events, can undergo noun incorporation, as is the case with yam "sea", in this example:

Intarsaššupninnaggammantassaraššamaran.
ntar-saxt-šupn-naggammantassarat-yam-ar-an
INCIP-INCH-SIM-be.tsunami-sea-PST-INTR
The sea started to rise high until it became almost like a tsunami.

Valency and Agreement Marking Irregularities

It remains debatable as to whether stative verbs with incorporated meteorological nouns are monovalent or zero-valent. The following example lends support to a monovalent interpretation: an overt non-null pronominal agreement marker -i- indicates that an underlying third person inanimate plural absolutive argument exists and has undergone pro-drop:

Intarwakkayyuštiran.
ntar-wakkay-iyuššit-i-ar-an
INCIP-incidentally.meet-storm.cloud-3P.NEUT.ANIM.NOM-PST-INTR
Storm clouds gathered.

Oftentimes, agreement marking occurs under certain restrictions, and/or exhibit irregularities in gender-number concord. When agreement marking does appear, they tend to occur with collective or mass nouns, such as the inherently collective iyuššit, and only with certain verbs, particularly ones indicating movement, and even then iyuššit triggers agreement marking in a small fraction among these verbs. An example where agreement marking is lacking with the very same collective noun follows in the next example. Note that the verb -adu- ("be many"), unlike -wakkay-, is not a motion verb. The lack of an overt agreement marker with -adu- points towards a zero-valent interpretation:

Intasaxtaduyyuštaran.
nta-saxt-adu-iyuššit-ar-an
INT-INCH-be.many-storm.cloud-PST-INTR
The sky became thick with storm clouds (lit. "The storm clouds became quite many.")

Similarly, when iyuššit is incorporated into the positional verb -puħt- "to stand upright", agreement marking does not occur:

Puħtuyyuštaran.
puħt-iyuššit-ar-an
stand.upright-storm.cloud-PST-INTR
The storm clouds hung (over us) (lit. "The storm clouds stood upright")

Diachronic factors may explain the irregularities involving agreement marking for a subset of incorporated nouns interacting with a subset of verbs. The Proto-Nahenic ancestor originally had an extensive hierarchical noun class system, remnants of which remain in Minhast's relative Nahónda as evidenced by even more irregularities in the latter, and in its other relative Nankôre, whose elaborate nominal hierarchy may be a preservation of the protolanguage's original noun class system or an extensive elaboration of it. The irregular agreement marking triggered by -iyuššit- among a subset of a select class of verbs suggests that the noun once fell within a noun class of a particular animacy level. When the protolanguage split, the original noun class system were restructured in the daughter languages; further reductions and loss, particularly in both Minhast and Nahónda, left a residue in the form of the irregular agreement marking seen today.