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Dundulanyä: Difference between revisions
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* ''lilāḍu'' (friend) → ''lilāḍīcene'' (little friend - often used by parents referring to kids' friends) | * ''lilāḍu'' (friend) → ''lilāḍīcene'' (little friend - often used by parents referring to kids' friends) | ||
* ''yalka'' (beach) → ''yalcīcene'' (small, often secluded beach) | * ''yalka'' (beach) → ''yalcīcene'' (small, often secluded beach) | ||
==Syntax== | |||
===Verb phrase=== | |||
====Telicity in perception verbs==== | |||
A subset of Dundulanyä verbs are known as "perception verbs" and, while generally grammatically regular, they deserve a specific subsection in an English-language grammar as, syntactically and semantically, they are inherently different from the corresponding English verbs. | |||
In this subset of verbs, the semantic patient is the one who undergoes the experience of perceiving (seeing, knowing, lacking, etc.), due to the non-volitional nature of the action described. | |||
Perception verbs are therefore inherently atelic and intransitive: the semantic patient is the perceiver, while the perceived thing is an ablative argument. In this respect, it could be said that Dundulanyä extends to physical perception the syntactic treatment of feelings. See for example the two following sentences, both using different perception verbs: | |||
{{Gloss | |||
| phrase = jñū meśah. | |||
| morphemes = jñu-ū meś-∅-∅-h | |||
| gloss = tree-<small>ABL.SG</small>. see-<small>EXP-PAT-1SG.IND.PRES</small>. | |||
| translation = I see the tree. | |||
}} | |||
{{Gloss | |||
| phrase = nenūya chläh. | |||
| morphemes = nena-ū=ya chlä-∅-∅-h | |||
| gloss = voice-<small>ABL.SG=2SG</small>. be_happy-<small>EXP-PAT-1SG.IND.PRES</small>. | |||
| translation = I'm happy to hear from you. | |||
}} | |||
Perception verbs include many common roots in the language, such as ''√meś-'' (to see), ''√śod-'' (to know, understand), ''√nely-'' (to think), ''√chlä-'' (to be happy, glad), ''√śeñc-'' (to lack, miss), ''√vart-'' (to need), ''√hend-'' (to hear), ''√hälp̃-'' (to be moved, touched), ''√lom̃b̃-'' (to like), or ''√kol-'' (to forget). | |||
From most atelic roots, telic transitive verbs can be derived by means of different prefixes (most commonly ''ta-'' (here), ''sam-'' (to the next one), ''mīram-'' (towards), ''pad-'' (beyond), ''sve-'' (full, all); where the action is conceptualized as negative also ''viṣ-'' (away), but more specific meanings can be formed through other prefixes). The results are lexicalized verbs, which are often better translated using different English verbs; cf. the following ones: | |||
* ''meś-'' (to see) → ''ta-meś-'' (to watch); | |||
* ''śod-'' (to know, understand) → ''saṃ-śod-'' (to learn) → causative ''saṃ-śod-on-'' (to teach); | |||
* ''hend-'' (to hear) → ''ta-hend-'' (to listen); | |||
* ''śeñc-'' (to lack, miss) → ''vikṣeñc-'' (''viṣ-śeñc-'') (to renounce); | |||
* ''vart-'' (to need) → ''ta-vart-'' (to require, demand); | |||
* ''kol-'' (to forget) → ''viṣ-kol-'' (to purposefully forget). | |||
==Vocabulary== | ==Vocabulary== | ||
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: ''nadda naṅgaśaurulu tati inilyam hä !'' — I thought you were from Naṅgaśūra! (the perfect here could also be translated as "until now, I had been thinking ...") | : ''nadda naṅgaśaurulu tati inilyam hä !'' — I thought you were from Naṅgaśūra! (the perfect here could also be translated as "until now, I had been thinking ...") | ||
: ''prānilau daśa mäliṣya tati nelyah''. — I think it's going to rain tomorrow. | : ''prānilau daśa mäliṣya tati nelyah''. — I think it's going to rain tomorrow. | ||
Note that ''√nely-'' is a perception verb, as defined [[#Telicity_in_perception_verbs|above]], and therefore intransitive, unlike ''√sām-''. | |||
Still, it's better not to translate directly "to think" as ''√nely-'' as in many cases Dundulanyä simply uses an evidential marker: | Still, it's better not to translate directly "to think" as ''√nely-'' as in many cases Dundulanyä simply uses an evidential marker: | ||