Minhast: Difference between revisions

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== Verbs ==
== Verbs ==


Minhast possesses a complex grammar, demonstrated in particular by the elaborate polysynthetic morphology of its verbal system. The Minhast verb inflects not only for tense and aspect, but can inflect to indicate mood, modality, causation, potentiality, intensity, and other functions. The verb also possesses a well-developed set of pronominal affixes used to cross-reference the core arguments of a clause. These affixes indicate both gender and number of the nouns they cross-reference, an essential function as Minhast nouns themselves do not have any markings to indicate these two classifications.  
Minhast verbs display a complex structure, demonstrated in particular by its elaborate polysynthetic morphology. The Minhast verb inflects not only for tense and aspect, but can inflect to indicate mood, modality, causation, potentiality, intensity, and other functions. The verb also possesses a well-developed set of pronominal affixes used to cross-reference the core arguments of a clause. These pronominal affixes indicate both gender and number of the nouns they cross-reference, an essential function as nouns themselves do not carry any case or number marking.


Additionally, the verb can carry out three other operations, that of noun incorporation, antipassivation, and applicative formation, used by speakers for discourse purposes such as backgrounding previously established information and for changing the argument structure of the phrase for the purposes of focusing on a particular argument, ensuring that priviledged noun phrases retain their core status, or to employ rhetorical devices. This polysynthetic characteristic can lead to very long verbs that can express an entire sentence, such as the following example illustrates:
Additionally, the verb can alter the argument structure of a clause through noun incorporation, antipassivation, and applicative formation.  These strategies are used by speakers for discourse purposes such as backgrounding previously established information, maintaining cross-reference of subjects across multiple clauses, and to employ various  rhetorical effects, among others. The verb's polysynthetic feature can lead to very long verbs that can express an entire sentence, such as the following example illustrates:


{{Gloss
{{Gloss
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| translation = You have not tried to get them to reconsider the evidence.
| translation = You have not tried to get them to reconsider the evidence.
}}
}}


The verb ''"tayentišnišpimbastannasumtittaharu"'' is an individual sentence in its own right.  It encodes both subject and object, mood, tense and aspect, polarity, manner, and even case relations.  Words that contain several morphemes to represent the majority if not all the arguments we would expect in a whole, felicitous sentence are said to be ''holophrastic'', a technical term for the more informal expression, "sentence-word".   
The verb ''"tayentišnišpimbastannasumtittaharu"'' is an individual sentence in its own right.  It encodes both subject and object, mood, tense and aspect, polarity, manner, and even case relations.  Words that contain several morphemes to represent the majority if not all the arguments we would expect in a whole, felicitous sentence are said to be ''holophrastic'', a technical term for the more informal expression, "sentence-word".   
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