Difference between revisions of "Biak/Grammar"

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(Grammar Points)
(Noun Specificity)
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{{morphTest|yuk{{tag|n}}{{tag|sg}}{{tag|nonSP}}|yuko}}
 
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{{morphTest|yuk{{tag|n}}{{tag|sg}}{{tag|SPC}}|yukya}}
  
 
=== Possession (Alienable/Inalienable) ===
 
=== Possession (Alienable/Inalienable) ===

Revision as of 11:17, 4 March 2021

Word Classes

  1. Nouns n
  2. Verbs v
  3. Pronouns prn
  4. Adverbs adv
  5. Prepositions pr
  6. Interjections ij
  7. Numerals num
  8. Conjunctions
  9. Topic markers
  10. Exclamations

Note the absence of adjectives in Biak

Grammar Points

Verb number/person inflection

Verbs combine with pronomial subject affixes (mainly prefixes, a few infixes) that express number and person of the subject. In addition to singular and plural, Biak also has a dual and a paucal. For 1st person dual and plural, Biak also distinguishes between inclusive and exclusive. There are at least three ways to combine verbs with pronomial affixes, and this is mainly determined by the beginning of the verb stem.

CC-initial:

Example: «srow» (meet)

srow<v><p1><sg> ↔ yasrow

srow<v><p2><sg> ↔ wasrow

srow<v><p3><sg> ↔ isrow

srow<v><p1><du><ex> ↔ nusrow

srow<v><p1><du><inc> ↔ kusrow

srow<v><p2><du> ↔ musrow

srow<v><p3><du> ↔ susrow

srow<v><p3><pc> ↔ skosrow

srow<v><p1><pl><exc> ↔ nkosrow

srow<v><p1><pl><inc> ↔ kosrow

srow<v><p2><pl><an> ↔ sisrow

srow<v><p2><pl><inan> ↔ nasrow

(Add V-initial, CV-initial examples and CV special cases)

Noun Specificity

Nonspecificity is used to refer to entities that do not yet exist in this world. It is marked by the use of nonspecific articles -o for singular and -no for plural.

yuk<n><sg><nonSP> ↔ yuko

yuk<n><sg><SPC> ↔ yukya

Possession (Alienable/Inalienable)

spellrelax

Partial Reduplicaton

Verb Transitivity

Locative-existential clauses

Demonstratives

Pronouns