Proto-Rathmosian: Difference between revisions

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* '''Patient focus''' is marked with '''''-a-''''' and is mainly used with intransitive verbs in which the subject is the patient of the verb (i.e. Classes I-III), e.g. ''dreha-'' "be red", ''tuma-'' "fall". Used with semantically transitive verbs of Class V, it is effectively a passive marker e.g. ''keyka-'' "is seen". The subject of patient focus verb is in the Abs. case and there can be no direct object.
* '''Patient focus''' is marked with '''''-a-''''' and is mainly used with intransitive verbs in which the subject is the patient of the verb (i.e. Classes I-III), e.g. ''dreha-'' "be red", ''tuma-'' "fall". Used with semantically transitive verbs of Class V, it is effectively a passive marker e.g. ''keyka-'' "is seen". The subject of patient focus verb is in the Abs. case and there can be no direct object.
* '''Agent-Patient focus''' is marked with '''''-i-''''' and is used only with Class V (transitive) verbs in which both the subject and direct object are stated, e.g. ''keri-'' "rule". The subject of the verb is in the ergative case and the direct object in the absolutive.
* '''Dual focus''' is marked with '''''-i-''''' and is used only with Class V (transitive) verbs in which both the subject and direct object are stated, e.g. ''keri-'' "rule". The subject of the verb is in the ergative case and the direct object in the absolutive.
* '''Agent focus''' verbs are marked with '''''-u-''''' and are used with Class IV and V verbs, where the subject is the agent of the verb, but where no direct object is stated e.g. ''kuku-'' "eat", ''yuru-'' "run". The subject is in the ergative case for both transitive and intransitive verbs
* '''Agent focus''' verbs are marked with '''''-u-''''' and are used with Class IV and V verbs, where the subject is the agent of the verb, but where no direct object is stated e.g. ''kuku-'' "eat", ''yuru-'' "run". The subject is in the ergative case for both transitive and intransitive verbs.
* '''Medial''' verbs are marked with '''''-e-''''' and are used with Class V transitive verbs when the agent and the patient refer to the same entity, creating a reciprocal or reflexive meaning, e.g. ''sape-'' "wash oneself".
* '''Medial''' verbs are marked with '''''-e-''''' and are used with Class V transitive verbs when the agent and the patient refer to the same entity, creating a reciprocal or reflexive meaning, e.g. ''sape-'' "wash oneself". The subject here is in the ergative case.  
* '''''-e-''''' is used to give the verb a '''reciprocal''' or '''reflexive''' meaning, e.g. ''sape-'' "wash oneself". The subject here is in the ergative case.  
* '''Causative''' verbs are marked with '''''-im-''''', which is added to intransitive verbs (Class I-IV) to create a transitive, or to transitive (Class V) verbs to make a ditransitive, e.g. ''mlak-'' "die" > ''mlakim-'' "kill", ''keyk-'' "see" > ''keykim-'' "show, explain". The subject ('causer') of the verb is always in the ergative. The subject of an originally intransitive verb or the direct object of an originally transitive verb remain in the absolutive case. The subject of an originally transitive verb is demoted to the dative.  
* '''''-im-''''' is a '''causative''' suffix, meaning "cause to do", e.g. ''kukim-'' "feed s.o.", ''mlagnim-'' "kill".
<small>* '''Patient Causative''' verbs take '''''-am-''''' and are formed from either transitive or intransitive verbs to create an intransitive in which the patient of the original verb
* '''''-am-''''' is an '''anticausative''' suffix, describing an action forced upon someone or something, e.g. ''kukam-'' "force feed"
</small>
* '''''-em''''' is an '''autocausative''' suffix, describing an action in which the subject of the sentence causes an action that effects themselves, e.g. ''mlagnem-'' "kill oneself"
* '''Autocausative''' verbs take '''''-em''''' and create a causative in which the agent causes the action to itself, e.g. ''mlakem-'' "kill oneself"
 
The primary division in verbal morphology is made between '''dynamic''' ('''Class I''') verbs and '''stative''' ('''Class II''') verbs. Dynamic verbs denote actions and verbs of motion while stative verbs refer to states of being and include the large class of adjectival verbs, such as ''dreh-'' "to be red", ''mlak-'' "to be dead". A verbal stem belongs primarily to one or other class, depending on its semantics but the boundaries are not inflexible.
 
Class I verbs are marked for aspect. The '''imperfective''', denoting incompleted or continuous action and often understood as non-past, is marked with the infix ''-n-'' following the root. The '''perfective''', denoting completed action and usually referring to the past, takes ''-t-''. For example ''yur-'' "run" → ''yurn-'' "runs, running", ''yurt-'' "ran". Class II verbs are not marked for tense. As stative verbs they are understood to be imperfective and general in time. Because of the way aspect marking occurs, verbs are able to pass between classes. Class I verbs may be treated as Class II (i.e. unmarked) in order to give a gnomic sense, though this is generally restricted to poetic and proverbial usage ''hedər hedus'' "birds fly". Far more common is the use of Class II roots with Class I aspect markers to give an inchoative sense, e.g. ''mlak-'' "be dead" → ''mlagn-'' "become dead die", ''mlakt-'' "became dead, died".
 
The aspect markers, or the stem directly in Class II verbs, are followed by valency markers: ''-a-'' for intransitive verbs, ''-i-'' for passive verbs and ''-u-'' for transitive verbs. Class II verbs are always intransitive.


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