Nuosu/Grammar

Part of Speech

1. Open
   • Noun
     • lyp<n> ↔ lyp - seed
   • Verb
     • lyp<v> ↔ lyp - sow
   • Adjective
     • jjip<adj> ↔ jjip - full
2. Semi-closed
   • Determiner
     • Classifier
       • ji<cl> ↔ ji - bar,used to classify one-dimensional entities
   • Adverb
     • gexyimu<adv> ↔ gexyimu - stupid
   • Conjunction
3. Closed
   • Pronoun
     • nga<prn><pers> ↔ nga
   • Particle
     • da<vaux> ↔ da

For pronouns, you want a category tag <prn> and main subcategory tag, which here would be <pers> (for 'personal pronoun'). Particles are always an issue, but you'll want a part of speech tag distinct from the semantics at play. If it's tense-related, you might be able to call them auxiliaries, <vaux>, or if you think it's better to treat them as a class of particles, then <mark> or maybe even <prt> could work. -JNW

Morphological Analysis

Size prefixes

• The diminutive prefixes i generates the meaning of "small"
  • sho<adj><dim> ↔ ixsho
  • du<adj><dim> ↔ ixdu
  • ly<adj><dim> ↔ ixly
• The augmentative prefix a can be prefixed to generate pair of antonyms, meaning of "big"
  • sho<adj><aug> ↔ asho
  • adu<adj><aug> ↔ adu
  • ly<adj><aug> ↔ axly

Nominalizer suffixes

Three nominalizer suffixes can be attached to verbs to form nouns. Not all verbs can take three suffixes.

• -lu is attached to a verb to form the action of that verb
  • mgu<v><nmlz_act> ↔ mgulu
  • hxip<v><nmlz_act> ↔ hxiplu
  • ndo<v><nmlz_act> ↔ ndolu
• -jjux is attached to a verb to mean the quality or extent of that verb
  • mgu<v><nmlz_qlt> ↔ ngujjux
  • ju<v><nmlz_qlt> ↔ jujjux
  • bi<v><nmlz_qlt> ↔ bijjux
• -tie is attached to a verb to indicate the manner of that verb
  • zhe<v><nmlz_mnr> ↔ zhetie
  • gu<v><nmlz_mnr> ↔ gutie
  • hlu<v><nmlz_mnr> ↔ hlutie

You'll want different tags for these nominalisers. You could do something like <nmlz_act>, <nmlz_qlt>, <nmlz_mnr> or something, or just <nmlz1> etc.—as long as you can distinguish them by their analysis. -JNW

Adjectivizer suffixes

• - sa encodes the easiness or pleasure of doing an activity.
  • zze<v><adjz_easy> ↔ zzesa
  • ndo<v><adjz_easy> ↔ ndosa
  • yu<v><adjz_easy> ↔ yusa

You probably want <adjz> here? Also, make sure you have distinct tags here too, as above. -JNW

• - we expresses the opposite state of difficulty, though less productive than -sa
  • zze<v><adjz_hard> ↔ zzewe
  • ndo<v><adjz_hard> ↔ ndowe
  • yu<v><adjz_hard> ↔ yuwe

Reduplicaiton

• Nouns are wholly reduplicated to mean some/a few of the noun, a classifier must follow this category of reduplication
  • mudi<n><qnty> ↔ mudimudi
  • muhly<n><qnty> ↔ muhlymuhly
  • lurmat<n><qnty> ↔ lurmatlurmat
• Pronouns may be reduplicated as emphatic pronouns.
  • ngat<prn><tn> ↔ ngatngat
  • nop<prn><tn> ↔ nopnox
  • nit<prn><tn> ↔ nitnit
• Verbs reduplicate in the form of V-jjy-V for intensification
  • mgu<v><int> ↔ mgujjymgu
  • ndup<v><int> ↔ ndupndup
  • budex<v><int> ↔ budexjjybudex
• Adjectives are reduplicated to form alternative question
  • ssi<adj><qst> ↔ ssixssi
  • zhut<adj><qst> ↔ zhutzhut
  • ceqy<adj><qst> ↔ ceqyxqy

As we discussed today, reduplication is the morphological strategy used here, but there are four distinct morphological phenomena that it's being used to encode. You'll want to come up with tags for each of these. I can help you figure out what tags might work best for some of these if you'd like. -JNW

Color Ideophones

• Colour adjectives take reduplicated ideophones to express colour nuances. They evoke images in the mind of the addressee. The ideophone is meaningless in isolation.
  • ashyx<adj><col> ↔ shyxndondo
  • aqu<adj><col> ↔ quxzyrzyr
  • axhni<adj><col> ↔ vutmomo
  • avut<adj><col> ↔ vutlolo
  • sox<adj><col> ↔ soxbobo

This doesn't seem very productive to me, and seems more like derivation. You could treat it as inflection if you want, but you'd want a separate tag for it. -JNW