Minhast: Difference between revisions

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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.

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. To demonstrate, the English phrase, "You did not even try to get them to reconsider the matter with this evidence" requires only three words in Minhast: ''"Keman yattah, tašnišpipyentisannasummatittaharu"'', meaning literally "To them the evidence, not-try-cause-return-look.at-yet-matter-with-it.you-did." The verb ''"tašnišpipyentisannasummatittaharu"'', which is an individual sentence in its own right, can be parsed to its individual morphemes, yielding ''"Ta-šn-šp-b-mat-yent-sar-nasum-tittah-ar-u"'' (NEG-CON-CAUS-~~RES~~-DEFERRED-look.at-matter-INSTR.APPL-3S.INANIM.ABS+2S.AGT-PST-TRANS).

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. To demonstrate, the English phrase, "You did not even try to get them to reconsider the matter with this evidence" requires only three words in Minhast: ''"Keman yattah, tašnišpipyentisannasummatittaharu"'', meaning literally "To them the evidence, not-try-cause-return-look.at-yet-matter-with-it.you-did." The verb ''"tašnišpipyentisannasummatittaharu"'', which is an individual sentence in its own right, can be parsed to its individual morphemes, yielding ''"Ta-šn-šp-b-mat-yent-sar-nasum-tittah-ar-u"'' (NEG-CON-CAUS-RESUMP-DEFERRED-look.at-matter-INSTR.APPL-3S.INANIM.ABS+2S.AGT-PST-TRANS).

Transitivity is determined by the number of core arguments, that is Agent or Patient/Goal. Minhast verbs do not necessarily map to traditional (i.e. Indo-European) notions of transitivity. As an example, the English sentence, "He jumped on the table" is grammatically intransitive. Available to the Minhast verb are both intransitive and transitive mappings: ''"Zekyaškī nirriekaran"'' , which is grammatically intransitive, with ''zekyaš=kī'' an oblique argument. The same meaning can be expressed transitively when the verb's valence is altered when the locative applicative affix ''(i)-n(i)-'' is applied: ''Zekyaš in-nirrieku''.

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 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.
-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. To demonstrate, the English phrase, "You did not even try to get them to reconsider the matter with this evidence" requires only three words in Minhast: ''"Keman yattah, tašnišpipyentisannasummatittaharu"'', meaning literally "To them the evidence, not-try-cause-return-look.at-yet-matter-with-it.you-did." The verb ''"tašnišpipyentisannasummatittaharu"'', which is an individual sentence in its own right, can be parsed to its individual morphemes, yielding ''"Ta-šn-šp-b-mat-yent-sar-nasum-tittah-ar-u"'' (NEG-CON-CAUS-RES-DEFERRED-look.at-matter-INSTR.APPL-3S.INANIM.ABS+2S.AGT-PST-TRANS).
+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. To demonstrate, the English phrase, "You did not even try to get them to reconsider the matter with this evidence" requires only three words in Minhast: ''"Keman yattah, tašnišpipyentisannasummatittaharu"'', meaning literally "To them the evidence, not-try-cause-return-look.at-yet-matter-with-it.you-did." The verb ''"tašnišpipyentisannasummatittaharu"'', which is an individual sentence in its own right, can be parsed to its individual morphemes, yielding ''"Ta-šn-šp-b-mat-yent-sar-nasum-tittah-ar-u"'' (NEG-CON-CAUS-RESUMP-DEFERRED-look.at-matter-INSTR.APPL-3S.INANIM.ABS+2S.AGT-PST-TRANS).
 Transitivity is determined by the number of core arguments, that is Agent or Patient/Goal. Minhast verbs do not necessarily map to traditional (i.e. Indo-European) notions of transitivity.  As an example, the English sentence, "He jumped on the table" is grammatically intransitive.  Available to the Minhast verb are both intransitive and transitive mappings: ''"Zekyaškī nirriekaran"'' , which is grammatically intransitive, with ''zekyaš=kī'' an oblique argument. The same meaning can be expressed transitively when the verb's valence is altered when the locative applicative affix ''(i)-n(i)-'' is applied: ''Zekyaš in-nirrieku''.