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Minhast: Difference between revisions
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An example can be illustrated using the English sentence "The dog is bigger than the cat". Here, the Comparee is ''dog'', because it is the entity being compared. The adjective ''big'' is the property that is used for implementing the comparison. The suffix ''-er'', attached to the adjective ''big'', is the Marker. Finally, the role of ''cat'' is that of the Standard; it is the entity that is being compared to. | An example can be illustrated using the English sentence "The dog is bigger than the cat". Here, the Comparee is ''dog'', because it is the entity being compared. The adjective ''big'' is the property that is used for implementing the comparison. The suffix ''-er'', attached to the adjective ''big'', is the Marker. Finally, the role of ''cat'' is that of the Standard; it is the entity that is being compared to. | ||
To express the Comparative, Minhast employs a very different structure than English. Minhast uses a two-clause construction is used. The Comparee occurs in the first clause and is in the Absolutive, with the Standard either expressed as an oblique Dative argument | To express the Comparative, Minhast employs a very different structure than English. Minhast uses a two-clause construction is used. The Comparee occurs in the first clause and is in the Absolutive, with the Standard either expressed as an oblique Dative argument. The verb for that clause is an intransitive stative verb. This verb serves as the Quality and is linked to the second clause with the General Subordinative clitic ''=mā''. The second clause of the construction contains either the verb ''annuk-an'' (to have the greater portion) or ''isp-an'' (to have the lesser portion). This verb in the second clause serves as the Marker. To illustrate, the sentence ''Anyar Narramitaran šimūzabammā annukaban >> Anyar Narramit=aran šimūz-ab-an=mā annuk-ab-an'' (Anyar=ABS Narramit=DAT to.be.hungry-IMPF-INTRANS=SUBORD have.greater.share-IMPF-INTRANS. | ||
From the Minhast perspective, there is nothing remarkable about the structure of | An alternative construction exists that is also very common, wherein the Comparee appears as an Ergative argument and the Standard appears in the Absolutive. This construction usually occurs where previous clauses were coordinated with the S/O pivot and the speaker wishes to maintain the pivot. In this case both the stative verb and the comparison verb serving as the Marker for the Comparee are converted to derived transitive verbs by AF using either the the Dative applicative affix ''-dut-'' or Adversive applicative ''-dāš-''. The previous example can thus be reformulated thus: '''Anyarde Narramit duštimūzabumā dutannukabu >>*Anyar=de Narramit dut-šimūz-ab-u=mā dut-annuk-ab-u''. Both the stative (Quality) verb and the Marker verb ''anuk-an'' are still semantically intransitive, nevertheless the surface structure resulting from these transformations by AF is still grammatically transitive. This structure allows the speaker to maintain the Narramit as the Absolutive argument for both verbs. As a result, Narramit retains his status as the pivot in a multiclause sentence. | ||
The formation of the Superlative is rather straightforward in Minhast. It is identical to the first version of the Comparative phrase structure, with the addition of dropping the Standard, as in ''Anyar šimūzabammā annukaban''. The Dative oblique argument (Narramit) is simply dropped from the clause. If the Standard consisted of several entities, the Distributive affix is usually appended to the verb, as in the sentence ''Anyar redadaran sararammā, paħpartaraban >> *Anyar redad=aran sar-ar-an-pi=mā, paħpār-tar-ab-an'' (Anyar.ABS men=DAT see-PAST-INTRANS-ANTI=SUBORD, to.be.tall-DISTR-IMPF-INTRANS. | |||
From the Minhast perspective, there is nothing remarkable about the structure of either of these sentences. They follow the standard rules of using an S/O pivot when co-reference between a PRO-dropped Absolutive argument must be maintained with that of the preceding clause. As far as Minhast is concerned, formation of a Comparative or Superlative phrase structure is simply another instance of valence operations that the language regularly employs. | |||
=== Word Order === | === Word Order === | ||