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Minhast: Difference between revisions
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To express the Comparative, Minhast employs a very different structure than English. Minhast uses a two-clause construction. The Comparee occurs in the first clause and is in the Absolutive, with the Standard expressed as an oblique Dative argument. The verb for that clause is an intransitive attributive verb. This verb serves as the Quality and is linked to the second clause with the General Subordinative clitic ''=mā''. The second clause of the construction contains either the verb ''annuk-an-pi'' (to have the greater portion) or ''isp-an-pi'' (to have the lesser portion). These are the Marker verbs, and are detransitivized with the Antipassive marker ''-pi-'' in order to match the valency of the Quality verb. | To express the Comparative, Minhast employs a very different structure than English. Minhast uses a two-clause construction. The Comparee occurs in the first clause and is in the Absolutive, with the Standard expressed as an oblique Dative argument. The verb for that clause is an intransitive attributive verb. This verb serves as the Quality and is linked to the second clause with the General Subordinative clitic ''=mā''. The second clause of the construction contains either the verb ''annuk-an-pi'' (to have the greater portion) or ''isp-an-pi'' (to have the lesser portion). These are the Marker verbs, and are detransitivized with the Antipassive marker ''-pi-'' in order to match the valency of the Quality verb. | ||
To illustrate, the sentence ''Anyar Narramitaran šimūzabammā annukabampi >> Anyar Narramit=aran šimūz-ab-an=mā annuk-ab-an-pi'' (Anyar=ABS Narramit=DAT to.be.hungry-IMPF-INTRANS= | To illustrate, the sentence ''Anyar Narramitaran šimūzabammā annukabampi >> Anyar Narramit=aran šimūz-ab-an=mā annuk-ab-an-pi'' (Anyar=ABS Narramit=DAT to.be.hungry-IMPF-INTRANS=SUB have.greater.share-IMPF-INTRANS-ANTI. | ||
The formation of the Superlative is rather straightforward in Minhast. It is similar to the Comparative phrase structure, with few modifictions. First, the Standard is dropped. The Dative oblique argument also dropped from the clause, and the Distributive affix is appended to both the Quality and the Marker verbs to indicate that the Quality extends across an entire set that implicitly represents the Standard, as in the sentence ''Anyar redadaran sararampimā, paħpartarabammā annuktararan >> *Anyar redad=aran sar-ar-an-pi=mā, paħpār-tar-ab-an=mā annuk-tar-ar-an'' (Anyar.ABS men=DAT see-PAST-INTRANS-ANTI= | The formation of the Superlative is rather straightforward in Minhast. It is similar to the Comparative phrase structure, with few modifictions. First, the Standard is dropped. The Dative oblique argument also dropped from the clause, and the Distributive affix is appended to both the Quality and the Marker verbs to indicate that the Quality extends across an entire set that implicitly represents the Standard, as in the sentence ''Anyar redadaran sararampimā, paħpartarabammā annuktararan >> *Anyar redad=aran sar-ar-an-pi=mā, paħpār-tar-ab-an=mā annuk-tar-ar-an'' (Anyar.ABS men=DAT see-PAST-INTRANS-ANTI=SUB, to.be.tall-DISTR-IMPF-INTRANS), which literally means "Anyar saw some men, he was strong ''across'' (each one) ", he held the greater portion ''across'' (each one) ". | ||
Notice that the agreement of transitivity between both the Quality and Marker verbs follow the standard rules of creating an S/O pivot to indicate that both Standard and Quality verbs refer to the same Absolutive argument. As far as Minhast is concerned, formation of a Comparative or Superlative phrase structure is simply another instance of valence operations that the language regularly employs. Thus, the Minhast structure for both Comparatives and Superlatives can be compared vis-a-vis English as follows: | Notice that the agreement of transitivity between both the Quality and Marker verbs follow the standard rules of creating an S/O pivot to indicate that both Standard and Quality verbs refer to the same Absolutive argument. As far as Minhast is concerned, formation of a Comparative or Superlative phrase structure is simply another instance of valence operations that the language regularly employs. Thus, the Minhast structure for both Comparatives and Superlatives can be compared vis-a-vis English as follows: | ||