Chechen/Grammar
From LING073
Contents
Main Parts of Speech in Chechen
Noun
Noun <n>
Noun Class and Plurality
We use the "six noun-classes" distinction from A Grammar of Chechen by Zura Dotton & John Wagner here [1], and the standard sub-category tags for grammatical number: singular and plural. [2].
- Singular <sg>
- Plural <pl>
- v.class <vc> :all v.class nouns are masculine, including all biologically masculine nouns.
- <n><vc><sg> ↔
- <n><vc><pl> ↔
- j.class <jc> :it includes all biologically feminine animate nouns and many load words from Russian.
- <n><jc><sg> ↔
- <n><jc><pl> ↔
- j.class II <jc2> :idiosyncratic
- <n><jc2><sg> ↔
- <n><jc2><pl> ↔
- d.class <dc> :it includes all the most common nouns and are used for the citation form of the classed adjectives and classed verbs in Chechen dictionaries, also including
- <n><dc><sg> ↔
- <n><dc><pl> ↔
- b.class <bc> :idiosyncratic
- <n><bc><sg> ↔
- <n><bc><pl> ↔
- b.class II <bc2> :idiosyncratic
- <n><bc2><sg> ↔
- <n><bc2><pl> ↔
Case
We use the "ten case" distinction from A Grammar of Chechen by Zura Dotton & John Wagner as well [3].
- Absolutive case <abs> : uninflected form or citation form
- Ergative case <erg> : mark the subject of a transitive verb
- Genitive case <gen> : mark the possessor of another object
- Dative case <dat> : mark recipient of an action or the indirect object and thematic experiencer of a given verb
- Allative case <all> : describe the goal or destination of a given verb, theme of a transitive causative verb and the subject of a verb in potential mood.
- Instrumental case <ins> : mark the instrument of a given verb
- Lative case <lat> : denote the source or origin of an action or other nouns, topic or theme of certain verbs and cause or reason of an event.
- Comparative case <com> : exclusively frame a comparative statement
- Inessive case <ine> : describe static location
- Ablative case <abl> : denote the physical source or direction of a given verb
Pronoun
Pronoun <prn>
1. Personal Pronoun <pers>
- Number Feature
- Singular <sg>
- Plural <pl>
- Person Feature
- 1st person <p1>
- 2nd person <p2>
- 3rd person <p3>
- Case Feature
- See the case section in noun category.
- Additional Feature
- Only in 1st person plural:
- inclusive <inc>
- exclusive <exc>
2. Demonstrative Pronoun <dem>
- Deictic Feature
- proximal <prx>
- distal <dst>
3. Interrogative Pronoun <itg>
- Case Feature
- See the case section in noun category.
Verb
Verb <v>
Transitivity
- Transitive <tv>
- Intransitive <iv>
Tense
- Present <pres>
- Past <past>
- Future <fut>
- Potential Future <pot>
- Compound Future: the most widely used future tense and therefore we do not assign another tag for it.
- Future Continuous: actually using participle, which is discussed later, instead of morphological change.
Aspect
- Imperfective <ipf>
- Perfective <pf>
- Progressive <prog>
- Recent <rec>
- Remote <rem>
Mood
- Imperative <imp>
- Polite imperative <pol>
- Immediate imperative <imd>
- Tasked imperative <tsk>
- Categorical imperative <cat>
- Causative <caus>
Evidentiality
- Witnessed <wit>
- Unwitnessed <uwit>
Other Verb forms
- Masdar <msdr>: verbal denominal
- Relative Clausal Participles <rcp> : verb form used to modify
- Tense: See tense section in verb category
- Future continuous <fut><con>
- Tense: See tense section in verb category
- Light verbs <ligv>
Postposition
Adjective
Adjectives <adj>
- Qualitative (standard) adj: the most common adj type and therefore do not assign tag separately
- Relative adj: have the same morphological form as above and therefore do not have separate tag as well
- Class adj <cla>
- agree in noun-class of the head noun it modifies
- Comparative form of adj <com>
- Extended comparative <ext>
- Substantivized adj <sub>
- Independent <idp>
- Dependent <dp>
- Case & Number