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====Coverbs==== | ====Coverbs==== | ||
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverb Coverbs] in Nankôre formal grammar are auxiliary verbs that serve to provide additional syntactic information to the main verb itself, or to the core arguments. Although several types of coverbs exist, the Directionals-Positionals coverbs are the most prominent. Directional and positional coverbs serve as a way of indicating case relations of the core arguments, somewhat like Applicatives in other languages, such as those of its distant cousin [[Minhast]]. In fact the older linguistic literature often refers to these coverbs as "Applicative Verbs". The Directionals-Positionals coverbs always precede the all other modal verbs, which are scope-ordered. | |||
Coverbs are auxiliary verbs that serve to provide additional syntactic information to the main verb itself, or to the core arguments. | |||
=====Directional-Positional Coverbs===== | =====Directional-Positional Coverbs===== | ||
Directional and positional coverbs have both a long and short form. The long form, also called the Independent Form, may serve as a bona fide standalone verb, or it may serve as a coverb provided that no clitics attach to it. Thus the coverb ''sanha'', in its long form, means "to go towards, to approach" as an independent verb, but its short form, ''san'', always indicates motion towards an entity; this sort of syntactic relation is usually handled by the Allative case in languages which indicate case marking on the noun. Clitics that otherwise attach to the main verb, such as the Inverse marker and and aspect markers, move to and attach to the first occurring coverb of the VP. Clitics attach only to the short form. Additionally, morphophonemic alternations may take place when the Inverse marker ''ta='' cliticizes to the coverb, such as in the Subessive ''cor-''. | Directional and positional coverbs have both a long and short form. The long form, also called the Independent Form, may serve as a bona fide standalone verb, or it may serve as a coverb provided that no clitics attach to it. Thus the coverb ''sanha'', in its long form, means "to go towards, to approach" as an independent verb, but its short form, ''san'', always indicates motion towards an entity; this sort of syntactic relation is usually handled by the Allative case in languages which indicate case marking on the noun. Clitics that otherwise attach to the main verb, such as the Inverse marker and and aspect markers, move to and attach to the first occurring coverb of the VP. Clitics attach only to the short form. Additionally, morphophonemic alternations may take place when the Inverse marker ''ta='' cliticizes to the coverb, such as in the Subessive ''cor-''. | ||