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(→Noun) |
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| CL12 : hard, cold, dark || t͡ʃo- || t͡ʃa- | | CL12 : hard, cold, dark || t͡ʃo- || t͡ʃa- | ||
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Thus, nouns are marked for class, and consequently for number, but also for definiteness. As has already been mentioned above, class is marked by a prefix ; definiteness, however, is marked by a suffix : CL-noun-DEF. There are four definiteness suffixes to choose from ; historically, they correspond to the fusion of two "sorts" of definiteness for which the noun had to be marked. The first kind of definiteness, DEF1, corresponds to whether the referent is known or has been mentioned, or if on the contrary it is unknown or new in the conversation. The second kind of definiteness, DEF2, corresponds to whether the referent is a specific one, or instead a typical, unspecified one. Morphosyntactically, the noun inflectional structure would be : CL-noun-DEF1-DEF2. In the pair "specified vs typical", typicality was unmarked, so that eventually the morphemes DEF1 and DEF2 fusionned into 4 definiteness morphemes such that DEF1 would be either unmarked or marked for specificity. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|- | |||
! Definiteness !! Suffix | |||
|- | |||
| known/mentioned ; typical || -nde | |||
|- | |||
| known/mentioned ; specific || -nd͡ʒi | |||
|- | |||
| unknown/new ; typical || -t͡sa | |||
|- | |||
| unknown/new ; specific || -t͡se | |||
|} | |} | ||
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