Peshpeg: Difference between revisions

Peshpeg's three-way split in its morphological alignment underlies its nominal case-number system.  Thus, the case-number system reflects the nominal system's animacy hierarchy.  A nominative-accusative pattern among Class I nouns, an ergative-absolutive pattern in Class II nouns, and a direct alignment in its Class III nouns.  The nominative-accusative pattern in Class I nouns marks direct objects with the submorpheme ''-j-''.  The ergative-absolutive system is distinguished by the submorpheme ''-d-'' for ergative arguments.  Both Class I and Class II mark plurality with an underlying nasal submorpheme, ''-m-'' in Class I nouns, and ''-n-'' in Class II nouns.  Class III nouns bear no number marking, and likewise has zero-marking for distinguishing core arguments.

|phrase = Torzhadu Kodzorinjor gumbiri jorlu.

| morphemes = kodzorin torzha gumbiri jorlu.

| gloss = hammer_PN.CL1.S.NOM girl.CL2.S.ABS AUX.CL2.S.PST hit

| translation = The girl struck Kodzorin.

 

In the following example, ''torzha'', a Class II noun, requires ergative marking to indicate it is serving as the agent, whilst the argument ''Kodzorin'', a Class I noun, requires the accusative marker ''-jor'' to indicate its role as the patient of the sentence:

 

| gloss = girl.CL2.S-ERG hammer_PN.CL1.S-ACC AUX.CL2.S.PST hit

| translation = The girl struck Kodzorin.