Difference between revisions of "Nivkh/Grammar"

Revision as of 04:14, 13 February 2019

Word Class

Extremely prductive "clitics" that can be attached to various word classes
No prepositions and conjunctions and adjectives
At least 20 postpositions
Highly developed sysytem of converbs (> 20 forms)
Qualitative verbs replace adjectives
Use nouns attributively

Syntax

SOV
Attribute precedes nouns

Morphology

Verbs not marked for person or number except imperative and some convrbs
Almost exclusively suffixing
Plural is optional in the indicative verb
Two tenses (non-future and future) (-дь indicative -иы future)
Causative verbs marked with suffix (-ку -ху -гу -ғу)
Resultative verbs
Reflexive pronouns

Nouns have 9 cases (nominative is not marked)
- Agentive
- dative/additive
- instrumental
- locative
- locative/ablative
- terminative
- comparative
- vocative

Pronouns

The first and second person singular and reflexive pronouns lose the final vowel when prefixed unless the word has two initial consonants.

ньи<prn><pers><p1><sg> ↔ ньи
ть'и<prn><pers><p2><sg> ↔ ть'и
иф<prn><pers><p3><sg> ↔ иф
ньыӈ<prn><pers><p1><pl><excl> ↔ ньыӈ
мер<prn><pers><p1><pl><incl> ↔ мер
меги<prn><pers><p1><du><incl> ↔ меги
ть'ыӈ<prn><pers><p2><pl> ↔ ть'ыӈ
имӈ<prn><pers><p3><pl> ↔ имӈ
п'и<prn><pers><ref> ↔ п'и

Nominal Morphology

case name	~meaning	tag	possible forms	ӄан "dog"	ӈа "animal"
nominative	subject	`<nom>`	—	ӄан`<n><nom>` ↔ ӄан	ӈа`<n><nom>` ↔ ӈа
agentive	various subjects (51)	`<age>`	аӽ, ӽ
dative/additive	"to, for"	`<dat>`	тоӽ, доӽ, роӽ, рӽ	ӄан`<n><dat>` ↔ ӄандоӽ	ӈа`<n><dat>` ↔ ӈароӽ
instrumental	"with"	`<ins>`	кир, гир, хир, ғир
locative	"at, in, on"	`<loc>`	уйн, йн, н	ӄан`<n><loc>` ↔ ӄануйн	ӈа`<n><loc>` ↔ ӈауйн
ablative	"in, out of, along, since, from"	`<abl>`	ух, х
terminative	"for, up to, as long as, as far as"	`<term>`	т'ыкы, р̌ыкы, т'ӽа, р̌'ӽа, рӷа, тоӻо, роӻо, доӻо
comparative	"than [x], compared to [x]"	`<comp>`	ык, к
vocative	direct address	`<voc>`	а, ː	ӄан`<n><voc>` ↔ ӄана

Plurals

Plural markers on nouns is the same as on verbs. You add the suffix -ку/-ху/-гу/-ғу. Plural markers are optional on nouns and verbs. Another way to express plurality is by reduplication of an attribute.

Reduplication of noun stem expresses a plural distributive meaning.

Possession

Examples for the noun "knife" заӄо

ньи<prn><p1><sg><nom> + заӄо<n> ↔ ньзаӄо
ть'и<prn><p2><sg><nom> + заӄо<n> ↔ ть'саӄо
иф<prn><p3><sg><nom> + заӄо<n> ↔ изаӄо
п'и<prn><ref>+ заӄо<n> ↔ п'саӄо

Verbal Morphology

Examples for the verb "beat" за

ньи<prn><p1><sg><nom> + за<v><ind> ↔ ньзадь
ть'и<prn><p2><sg><nom> + за<v><ind> ↔ ть'садь
иф<prn><p3><sg><nom> + за<v><ind> ↔ задь
п'и<prn><ref>+ за<v><ind> ↔ п'садь

ньыӈ<prn><p1><pl><excl><nom> + за<v><ind> ↔ ньыӈдядь
тьыӈ<prn><p2><pl><nom> + за<v><ind> ↔ тьыӈдядь
имӈ<prn><p3><pl><nom> + за<v><ind> ↔ имӈдядь

Alternate forms

Rarely a third person singular object is marked with i- rather than Ø-.

за<v><ind><o_p3sg> ↔ изадь

"Postpositions"

Tag: post Postpositions can be divided into two classes: denominal/declinable and deverbal/undeclinable.

Denominal

Tag: den

These postpositions are best interpreted as nouns in an attributive complex (first noun acts as attribute to the "postposition", which is the head noun.).

тыф<n> + ми<n> + ама<v><ind> ↔ тывмиамадь

'Looked inside the house'

ваӄа<n> + ми<n><loc> ↔ ваӄамин

'Into the box'

тыф<n> + ми<n> ↔ тывми

'The inside of the house.'

Deverbal

Tag: dev

Nouns with deverbal postpositions cannot be used in direct object position.

иф<prn><p3><sg> + увудоӽ<post> ↔ ювудоӽ

'Instead of him/her'

иф<prn><p3><sg> + ордоӽ<post> ↔ ёрдоӽ

'Towards him/her'

Cardinal Numerals

Numerals classify nouns into 27 classes. Numerals 6-9 are the same for all classes.

Some numerals with meaning 'two':

мен<num><human> ↔ мен
мор<num><animal> ↔ мор
меӄр<num><generic> ↔ меӄр
мевсӄ<num><pairs> ↔ мевсӄ
мим<num><boats> ↔ мим
мер<num><bunches.of.dried.fish> ↔ мер
мевор<num><long> ↔ мевор
мерах<num><thin.and.flat> ↔ мерах
мик<num><small.and.round> ↔ мик

Nominalisation

There are four main types of nominalisation: predicate-actant nmz.pred, subject nmz.subj, adverbial nmz.adv, locative nmz.loc.

Predicate-actant nominalisation (suffix -дь/-ть)

1) Action Nominal Construction

Subject Position

ӿуӈрыдь<prn>+во<v><tv><ind> ↔ ӿуӈрыдьводь

'took a thing like this'

ӿуӈрыдь<prn>+во<v><tv><nmz.pred> ↔ ӿуӈрыдьводь

'(the) taking (of) a thing like this'

Direct Object Position

питғы<n>+даю<v><tv><ind> ↔ питғыдаюдь

'wrote a letter'

питғы<n>+даю<v><tv><nmz.pred> ↔ питғыдаюдь

'(the) writing (of) a letter'

In direct object position, the subject of the nominalised verb is marked as reflexive.

2) Substitutional

тьека<v><iv><ind><pl> ↔ тьекадьғу

'are strong'

тьека<v><iv><nmz><pl><nmz.pred> ↔ тьекадьғу

'the strong ones' / 'the ones that are strong'

3) Full substantivisation

Denotes the result or state of the verb as opposed to the action of the verb.

ть'ола<v><iv><ind> ↔ ть'оладь

'is poor'

п'и<prn><ref> + ть'ола<v><iv><nmz.pred> ↔ п'соладь

'his (own) poverty'

Their distinctive feature is prefixation of personal pronouns used as attributes.

Subject nominalisation (suffix -к)

Functionally close to the substitional predicate-actant nominals. Can be used in all syntactic positions.

сета<n> + ғе<v><tv><ind> ↔ сетағедь

'bought sugar'

сета<n> + ғе<v><tv><fut><nmz.subj> ↔ сетағенык

'the one who will buy sugar'

Adverbial nominalisation (zero marking)

No overt marking. Not used in the nominative case. Only used with case markings and/or postpositions or the adverbial suffix -скир.

п'ры<v><iv><fut><ind> ↔ п'рыныдь

'will come'

п'ры<v><iv><fut><nmz.adv><term> ↔ п'рыныт'ыкы

'until (I will) come'

Locative nominalisation (suffix -ф/-в)

Highly productive. Nouns in -ф/-в derive from practically any word. Can be used in same way as adverbial nominal above.

True locative construction

иф<prn><pers><p3><sg> + у<v><tv><ind> ↔ юдь

'(something) set it'

иф<prn><pers><p3><sg> + у<v><tv><nmz-loc> ↔ юф

'the place where (something) set it'

Adverbial construction

п'ры<v><iv><fut><nmz.loc><term> ↔ п'рыныфт'ыкы