Chlouvānem/Positional and motion verbs

→ This page treats the uses of verbal forms. See Chlouvānem morphology for the actual verbal morphology.

Chlouvānem's positional and motion verbs are one of the most complex parts of its grammar; a (relatively) small number of roots is used for most meanings related to state and movement in space and time, meanings which are specified with the use of many different prefixes, most of which are analogues to English prepositions.

Motion verbs

Motion verbs, in Chlouvānem, are furthermore divided into two categories: monodirectional (tūtugirdaradhūs, -aus) and multidirectional (tailьgirdaradhūs, -aus) motion verbs.
There is a total of 18 meanings for which motion verbs are used: 16 are pairs while two only have a monodirectional verb. Historically, multidirectional verbs were iteratives (as shown by their formation with the Proto-Lahob *-re- infix), but today they have a larger set of uses.

Meaning	Monodirectional verb (root)	Multidirectional verb (root)
to go, to walk	flulke (flun-)	peithake
to go with a vehicle (trans.) (except small boats, bikes, and airplanes)	vaske	pūrṣake
to ride, to mount (trans.)	nūkkhe (nūkh-)	nærkhake
to go towards, to be directed to (monodir.) to move (multidir.)	girake	dulde (duld-)
to run	mṛcce	mālchake
to swim	lįke	lærṣake
to fly	mugdhe (mudh-)	mordhake
to float in the air to go with a balloon or zeppelin	yåjyake	yėjrake
to float on water to go with a small boat, to row	uṭake	arṭake
to run (trans.) (e.g. river, water)	buñjñake	—
to roll	pṝke	pārlake
to climb	nittake	nėrpake
to jump	mųke	mårṣake
to crawl	ñulge (ñug-)	ñoerake
to fall	sturake	—
to carry, bring (on foot) (trans.)	dumbhake	dårbhake
to carry, bring (using a vehicle) (trans.)	tulьje	lerjike
to pull (trans.)	khulike	kharliake

As far as morphology is concerned, most of them are regular class 1 or 2 verbs, except for:

• flulke is highly irregular, with the irregular present singular flå, flin, fliven, suppletive past (dām-, dāmek) and perfect (elīs-, elīsa) stems, as well as the irregular optative stem fleina-.
• peithake has the contracted 3S past pat.
• mṛcce is a regular class 2 verb except for the suppletive past stem pañc-, pañcek.
• lįke and mųke are irregular vocalic stems, behaving as *lis- and *mus- in the present (ablauted in both) and past.
• yåjyake is class 5 (yåjyė, ejyek, ayåjya).
• ñoerake is irregular in the indicative present singular - ñoergu, ñoergi, ñoergė - but regular everywhere else.
• sturake is irregular (starė, (stārau) stāṭ, ustura).

Ways of "going"

To Chlouvānem ears, the English verb "to go" is extremely wide, as it is used as the translations for many different Chlouvānem verbs. Most notably, in Chlouvānem there is a consistent differentiation of verbs used with different means of transport: using flulke and specifying that one is going by car is simply a mistake - something the synonymous translation "*to walk by car" hints at.

Three verbs are used for different ways of going without any external mean:

• to go, walk = flulke (mono), peithake (multi)
• to run = mṛcce (mono), mālchake (multi)
• to swim = lįke (mono), lærṣake (multi)

These three verbs are also used to describe the movements of most land and sea animals.

Five more verbs are used when going with something more than one's own body:

• vaske (mono), pūrṣake (multi) is used for all vehicles except those that move in the air, small boats, submarines, and bikes.
• nūkkhe (stem nūkh-; mono), nærkhake (multi) is used for bikes and animals (horses, lalāruṇai, elephants...).
• mugdhe (stem mudh-: mono), mordhake (multi) is used for all air vehicles except balloons and zeppelins. Means "to fly" and is used this way with animals.
• yåjyake (mono), yėjrake (multi) is used for balloons and zeppelins. Means "to float in the air" and is used this way with animals and things (like e.g. falling leaves or other things moved by the wind).
• uṭake (mono), arṭake (multi) is used for small boats. Means "to float on water" and is used this way with animals (including e.g. ducks, swans...) and floating things.
  • Its derived verbs šūtake, švarṭake are used for submarines.

One verb pair is independent of means of transport, and is composed by girake (monodirectional, translated as "to go towards, to move in the direction of") and dulde (multidirectional or adirectional, translated as "to move"). These are also used when the means of transport is unknown, but in the future intentional it is often used interchangeably with "to go" (igirālta vs. elīsālta; multidirectional verbs are rarely found in this tense).

Three verbs denote transport of something and the on foot/in a vehicle contrast is still meaningful:

• dumbhake (mono), dårbhake (multi) refers to carrying or bringing something on foot.
• tulьje (mono), lerjike (multi) refers to carrying or bringing something in or using a vehicle.
• khulike (mono), kharliake (multi) refers to pulling something (no matter how).

The remaining six verbs denote different kinds of movement: buñjñake (to run (water only)) pṝke, pārlake (to roll), nittake, nėrpake (to climb), mųke, mårṣake (to jump), ñulge, ñoerake (to crawl), sturake (to fall). Some grammarians also include mūmikke (to dance), despite it not having a mono/multidirectional distinction.

Case usage

Motion verbs behave differently depending on whether they are prefixed and, if they have a prefix, whether it is ta- (or its ablative form tų-).

Unprefixed and ta-prefixed verbs form the easiest class: they are mostly intransitive verbs that take at most three complements:

• destination is expressed by the dative case (typically ending in -om in the singular) or by putting the verb in dative-trigger voice.
• source is expressed by the ablative case (typical singular ending -ų)
• state is expressed by the locative case (typical singular ending -e) or by putting the verb in locative-trigger voice.

Most verbs are used with either destination or source or both; state is used more rarely, and more often with multidirectional verbs.

The pairs for "to fly", "to float in the air", "to float on water", "to carry by vehicle", and "to pull" state the means of transport with the instrumental case; "to ride, mount" and "to go with a vehicle" do the same if the goer is not leading/driving the vehicle or animal him/herself. "To jump" also uses the instrumental case if the means of transport is paimpai (pogo stick).

If the goer is leading the animal or driving the vehicle him/herself, the "to go with a vehicle" and "to ride, to mount" pairs have the means of transport as a direct object.

All other prefixes cause the verb to become transitive and with no marked agent-trigger voice: they are agent-trigger by default and no change is used on the verb if it is used as patient-trigger. In these cases, either the destination or the source becomes the transitive object of the verb, depending on the type of prefix used (for example lative ān- promotes the destination as a transitive object, while ablative yana- promotes the source).

Those verbs which are transitive even in the unprefixed form can effectively have two different objects:

ñariū naviṣyu āndimbhu "I, on foot, bring the book up the mountain"

martu cūllu kamipūrṣu "I regularly drive by car around the city"

While this is often clear by context, there is a popular way to change the original transitive object (in these two cases, "book" and "car" respectively) to something else: if it's the thing driven, the instrumental case (or trigger) is used - cf. martu cūllap kamipūrṣu -; if it's the thing being brought, carried, or pulled, the lā (with) particle is used - cf. ñariū naviṣyęs lā āndimbhu. In this latter case, lenta (together with) is usually used for the comitative sense - cf. ñariū naviṣyęs lā liliai buneyi lenta āndimbhu "I, on foot, bring the book up the mountain with my sister".

Uses of verbs

Prefixed and unprefixed motion verbs differ not only in their case usage but also in their meanings: for unprefixed verbs, the monodirectional expresses movements in a single direction or when the destination is the focus; multidirectional verb are habitual, gnomic or potential, denote movement inside a single place, or completed movements (to and back from). Multidirectional unprefixed verbs can also have frequentative forms with the meaning of "to go there and back many times"; monodirectional verbs have no frequentatives, as the multidirectional are already used for that meaning anyway.
On the other hand, prefixed monodirectional verbs are not specifically aspectually marked (and the concept of mono- vs. multidirectionality is not meaningful), while prefixed multidirectional verbs are habitual and/or frequentative in meaning, and there are no meaningful frequentative derivations.

As mentioned before, (unprefixed) monodirectional verbs express a movement in a single direction:

jāyim tarlāmahom fliven - the girl goes/is going (walks/is walking) to school.

keikom såtap vasau - I took the subway to the park.

liliā ñæltai kitom jaje janāyų iliha - my sisters have [just] swum home in the igarapé from the port.

Note, in the last example, all three locative complements: the use of the locative case means that the whole action developed in the same place - concretely, that the igarapé was the way they followed home from the port.
See also this example for a (maybe more familiar) movement on land:

hælinaika taite juniāmiti lārvājuṣų saṃryojyami lātimom vasau - I took Line 2 [of the Līlasuṃghāṇa Subway] from the Blossoming Temple [station] to Central Saṃryojyam [station].

The four main uses of multidirectional verbs are:

1. Habitual actions:

   jāyim tarlāmahom peithė - the girl goes (walks) to school (regularly, every schoolday)

   saminą liliā ñæltai jaje lærṣaika - when they were children, my sisters regularly swam in the igarapé.

2. Movement inside a specific location (often expressed with locative-trigger voice), without any specified direction.

   jaja lærṣėrā - as for the igarapé, someone is swimming in there. (literally "the igarapé, it is being swum")

   marte peithįm - we walk around the city. (cf. Russian phrases with по as in мы ходим по городу)

3. Gnomic or potential meanings (the latter are usually not marked with the potential junia if it's a natural trait - see second example):

   gūṇai mordhāhai - birds fly.

   spragnyirena lalāruṇai pāmvyų lilų nanū dårbhāhaite - large lalāruṇai [can] carry more than three people.

4. In the past and in both future tenses, they can mark completed movements, that is, movement to a place and then back again. The perfect has roughly the meaning of "...to have just come back".

   liliā buneya galiākinom mordhek - my older sister went (flew) to Galiākina [and came back].

   liliā buneya galiākinom mudhek - my older sister went (flew) to Galiākina [and she was still there at the time relevant to the topic] – as a monodirectional verb, it may also mean "she was flying/going to Galiākina".

   liliā buneya galiākinom umudha - my older sister has gone (has flown) to Galiākina [she's still there].