Western Abenaki and English/Contrastive Grammar

Animacy

Nouns and verbs are tagged with animacy, and there are different verbs depending on whether the subject/object are animate or inanimate.

Plural Agreement

Adjectives and verbs must agree with the relevant noun in plurality

First Person Possessive, First Person Subject

In Western Abenaki, the first person possessive marker is a prefixed n. In English, this is simply the word "my." Similarly, a first person subject is marked on a verb with the same prefixed n. In English, this is the word "I."

• • N'cape - my coffee
    • ^cape<n><nn><px1sg>/coffee<n><px1sg>$
    • the "my" will be extracted in the Structural Transfer lab
  • n’wlômawaldamen - I believe
    • ^n’wlômawaldamen<vb><tv><nn><s_sg1>/believe<vb>
    • The "I" will also be extracted