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Minhast: Difference between revisions
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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''. | 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''. | ||
Minhast verbs can perform functions that are usually associated with other grammatical categories in other languages. For example, Minhast does not have a separate grammatical category for adjectives. Instead, verbs are used in place of adjectives. Verbs are divided into four broad categories | Minhast verbs can perform functions that are usually associated with other grammatical categories in other languages. For example, Minhast does not have a separate grammatical category for adjectives. Instead, verbs are used in place of adjectives. Verbs are divided into four broad categories: | ||
# Impersonal | |||
# Interrogative | # Interrogative | ||
# Attributive | # Attributive | ||
# Event | # Event | ||
=== Verb Types === | |||
Interrogative verbs are an unusual feature of the Minhast verbal system, and are rare cross-linguistically. In many languages, certain interrogative words co-occur with certain verbs with high frequency. Using English as an example, the verbs in the questions "What happened?", "Where are you going?", "Why did you do it?" illustrate that certain verbs, when they take a WH-word as an argument, have a statistically higher probability of picking one or two WH-words above others. The Interrogative Verbs serve as a shortcut, precluding the need for constructing a whole interrogative sentence with at least two constituents, the WH-word and the verb it is serving as an argument to. | |||
Interrogative verbs can either be zero-valent (i.e. an Impersonal Verb), as in ''"Innearaš?"' >>* inea-ar-an=š' [what.happened-PAST-INTRANS=IRREAL] ("What happened?"). | |||
or univalent. | |||
=== Verb Template === | === Verb Template === | ||