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Gender-number differentiation, the assignment of different grammatical genders and/or number to a lexical root, is exploited frequently to derive collective and mass nouns, and their corresponding count forms. Typically, a lexically collective or mass noun is assigned as a neuter inanimate singular noun, whilst their singulative forms are assigned to either to the third person masculine singular form, or the third person '''plural''' feminine form. The pluralization of the singulative forms usually involves assigning them to the neuter animate singular form. | Gender-number differentiation, the assignment of different grammatical genders and/or number to a lexical root, is exploited frequently to derive collective and mass nouns, and their corresponding count forms. Typically, a lexically collective or mass noun is assigned as a neuter inanimate singular noun, whilst their singulative forms are assigned to either to the third person masculine singular form, or the third person '''plural''' feminine form. The pluralization of the singulative forms usually involves assigning them to the neuter animate singular form. | ||
=== | === Telic Derivation === | ||
A process for deriving new verbs occurs via application of the Telicity affixes, the Durative ''-ħtaš'' and the Semelfective ''-minn-''. Technically telicity is a type of aspect, but unlike other aspect markers, which can be spontaneously employed in a single utterance, these affixes serve a more derivational purpose; their function is chiefly semantic as opposed to syntactic. For example, the verb root ''-dāwap-'' (to drip), when prefixed with the Durative, creates the derived verb ''-ħtaštāwap-'', which means "to trickle", and the verb root ''-sar-'' (to see) becomes ''-ħtassar-'' (to watch). | |||
=== Telic Derivation === | === Telic Derivation === |
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