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verb endings
- From: MorphemeAddict@hidden.email
- Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 02:47:15 EDT
- Subject: verb endings
- To: saweli@yahoogroups.com
I have changed the meaning of the verb endings slightly.
They used to mark whether a classifier's default was +/- F and s/d, with a special ending for the F/P classifiers, za/za'a, because of their odd order. Thus it used to be like this:
s d
-F p f
+F b v
F/P m
p=[-F]-s (te, many)
b=[+F]-s (yo, many)
f=[-F]-d (ti, tu)
v=[+F]-d (ta, we/we'a)
m=F/P-s (za/za'a)
The ending now indicates the number of arguments of the classifier default and whether it's static or dynamic. The table looks like this:
s d
1 arg p f
2 arg b v
3 arg m
And za/za'a is not treated as special.
It turns out that the only real change, aside from the interpretation, is that "ta" verbs end in 'm' now, and "za/za'a" verbs end in "b".
This works because there are no classifiers (yet) with default A/P-s, A/P/F-s, or A/P-d.
One problem I've had all along with L (since it was Katanda) is that the classifier defaults are hard to remember. These different verb endings are my attempt to remedy this, by making the defaults explicit.
The verb ending depends only on the classifier default argument structure, and so is always the same for each classifier.
I haven't yet found a way to to distinguish between defaults P and AP in the endings. The only consonant left unused is "q", and it doesn't fit into any scheme so far. And it's not a letter or sound I like to see or hear a lot. And it's very close phonetically to "s", "z", which are both common, and "x", which is more common in conversation than in the dictionary.
stevo