Kämpya: Difference between revisions
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(Section on Intransitive Verbs finished) |
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====With Pronouns==== | ====With Pronouns==== | ||
Kämpya only has a verb meaning "to be" if the subject is a pronoun. It is marked for 4 TAM categories (and is the only verb in the language to do so). | Kämpya only has a verb meaning "to be" if the subject is a pronoun. It is marked for 4 TAM categories (and is the only verb in the language to do so). It could thus be said that Kämpya has "tensed pronouns" (like Hausa). The 4 tenses are: Present Progressive (used for actions that are happening right now), Past Imperfect (also used for present habitual actions, or that are true in general), Perfect, and Future. | ||
This verb is not marked for number, but takes different forms for 1st person subjects depending on whether the listener is included [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clusivity]. Another way of looking at this is that Kämpya makes no distinction between "us not including you" and "me". | This verb is not marked for number, but takes different forms for 1st person subjects depending on whether the listener is included [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clusivity]. Another way of looking at this is that Kämpya makes no distinction between "us not including you" and "me". | ||
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In other cases where English would use the word "to be", Kämpya does not use a copula [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_copula] and simply places the two words together e.g. | In other cases where English would use the word "to be", Kämpya does not use a copula [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_copula] and simply places the two words together e.g. | ||
/ˈsíʔtà ˈḛ̂nèmì/ | |||
guardian enemy | |||
The guardian is / was / will be the enemy. | |||
===Intransitive Sentences=== | |||
Intransitive sentences generally have free word order. If the verb is in focus [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_(linguistics)], then it will come after the subject. If the subject is in focus, then it will come after the verb. So both of the following are grammatical:c | |||
/ˈḛ̂nèmì áˈlôṵn/ | |||
enemy alone | |||
The enemy is / was / will be '''alone'''. | |||
as well as | |||
/áˈlôṵn ˈḛ̂nèmì/ | |||
alone enemy | |||
The '''enemy''' is / was / will be alone. | |||
Note that intransitive sentences are not marked for TAM. | |||
====With Postpositional Phrases==== | |||
Likewise, if we include a postpositional phrase in the sentence, word order is fairly free e.g. with the postpositional phrase /ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à/ - "from ˈkʰóʔnàt (a place name)", the verb /kúʔn/ - "to set off" and the noun /ˈḛ̂nèmì/ - "enemy", we can say: | |||
/ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à ˈḛ̂nèmì kúʔn/ | |||
/ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à kúʔn ˈḛ̂nèmì/ | |||
/ˈḛ̂nèmì kúʔn ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à/ | |||
/ˈḛ̂nèmì ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à kúʔ/ | |||
/kúʔn ˈḛ̂nèmì ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à/ | |||
These all mean "The enemy set off / sets off / will set off from ˈkʰóʔnàt". However sentences like */kúʔ ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à ˈḛ̂nèmì/ are ungrammatical i.e. Kämpya does not permit the word order Intransitive Verb - Postpositional Phrase - Subject. | |||
====With Pronouns==== | |||
The same tensed pronouns as before are also used for intransitive sentences e.g. | |||
/jó kúʔn/ | |||
2PS.PROG depart | |||
You are setting off. | |||
Note that here TAM is marked (on the pronoun). So we can just as easily say: | |||
/jú kúʔn/ | |||
2PS.FUT depart | |||
You will set off | |||
And we can use the emphatic forms of the pronouns to say things like: | |||
/jò̰ kúʔn/ | |||
2PS.PROG.EMP depart | |||
'''You''' will set off. | |||
However, the pronoun must immediately precede the verb so */kúʔn jó/ is ungrammatical. And postpositional phrases cannot intervene between the pronoun and the verb, so */jó ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à kúʔn/ is ungrammatical (unlike sentences such as /ˈḛ̂nèmì ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à kúʔn/ which are grammatical). It is only grammatical to say: | |||
/ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à jó kúʔn/ | |||
ˈkʰóʔnàt from 2PS.PROG depart | |||
You are setting off from ˈkʰóʔnàt. | |||
or | |||
/jó kúʔn ˈkʰóʔnàt m̥à/ | |||
2PS.PROG depart ˈkʰóʔnàt from | |||
You are departing from ˈkʰóʔnàt. |