Verbs
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A short summery of Lartautian Verbs
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 3 Aug 2015, 04:54.
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This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
Verbs in EL do not mark for any sort of agreement, and outside of compounding and reduplication, exhibit no morphological marking on the stem. Instead, grammatical function is addressed with independent particles, auxiliaries or by lexical strategies.
All content verbs of EL fall into one of three classes — Active (AC), Stative (ST), and Eventive (EV) — which govern their interaction with other parts of the verbal phrase. Through compounding, verbs can be reassigned to another class, a function used productively and extensively.
Aspectual markers come in the form of phrase final particles. Prototypically this situates them immediately after the clause’s main verb, though in relative, modal, and object-focused clauses this may not be the case.
Throughout this section, glossed verbs are marked for their class.
Active
Active verbs are the most prototypical verbs in EL, describing temporally unstable concepts, often with clear changes in the patient, and high levels of agency in the subject.
Verbs from other classes turned into Active verbs will usually be used to describe a change of state (ST→AC) or to give temporal depth to an event (EV→AC). This latter usage overlaps somewhat with the Durative Aspect discussed below. There are two ways of making Active verbs from those that are not; to compound the verb with keī to change, or with naò to reveal. The former is used for transitive constructions where the subject is making a change to the patient and is similar to a Causative, and the latter is used mostly in intransitive clauses to describe a spontaneous or reflexive change or action.
luà
slave dōn
attack.ACUnknown code kàn
PERFPerfect (aspect/tense)
have verb-ed põn-daár
broad-man
The slave attacked the master.
õ-liī
that-woman keī-kei
change-be.red.AC kàn
PERF nãm-tau
this-thing
She painted this red (lit. ‘redded’ it).
duá-niùr
white-river naò-noō
reveal-flow.AC lā
from siú-tzoò
be.peaceful-mountain so
through liū-wãr
narrow-bay
The Duániùr River runs from the Siútzoò Mountains to Liūwãr.
Stative
Stative verbs describe properties or conditions, and function most usually as adverbials, though they can also be more temporally stable events e.g:
duá-niùr
white-river hoõ
NEG duá
be.white.ST hoõ
NEG
The Duániùr River is not white.
The verb yaó to sit, to be is used to stativise other verbs. AC→ST verbs describe continuous events or are used as adjuncts, given context.
niī-pao
boy-child yaó-wēr
sit-play.ST sīn
behind dèn
house
He’s playing out back.
õ-daár
that-man yaó-põn
sit-broad.ST lár
speak.AC hū-gaì
think-thing yaó-keī
sit-change.ST
His words are strong, but his mind is changeable.
EV→ST verbs mark the state reached upon completion an event.
koo
king yaó-haò
sit-do nen-de
EV-go
The king has arrived (and is here still).
The last example illustrates double-reclassification in EL. The basic, Active verb de go has first been eventivised (see below), and then once again reclassified to form a stative. The verb haò acts as a sort of ‘place-holder, ’ to distinguish the construction from a regular serialised verb complex. By way of comparison, de has been simply stativised in the next example, and haò removed in the one after that.
koo
king yaó-de
sit-go
The king is going/coming.
?
? koo
king yaó
sit nen-de
EV:go
?The king sits then arrives.
Eventive
Eventive verbs form the smallest class, and describe actions or events that can be thought of as points in longer (semantically coherent) occurrence, and punctual actions. In this way they most closely resemble the inchoative or cessative aspects of other languages, though no distinction between the inception and completion of a verb is made in EL, thus:
õ-daár nen-de kàn
that-man EV-go PERF
He left/arrived.
The above example also illustrates that the eventiviser nen is the only class changing compound that is no longer used in it’s own right as a verb. In this sense it can be thought of as a prefix, as apposed to a regular compounded verb.
õ-daár
that-man hoõ
NEG nen-hēm
EV-cut kàn
PERF qē
lumber hoõ
NEG
He didn’t finish cutting the lumber.
Eventives formed from statives describe the limits of an attribute or state.
miū
book hoõ
NEG nen-haò
EV-do deï-noa
be.possible-read.ST sīn
until nãm-tèn
this-place hoõ
NEG
The book is illegible up to this point.
EL distinguishes past and future time optionally. Unmarked clauses can be any time, given context, though prototypically refer to present time. Standard and Tsoniur use the purely lexical markers, pīnneo (lit. behind-now) and sīnneo (lit. in.front.of-now) respectively for past and future time. Liuwar uses simply pi and si, both of which have lost their high tone and coda, and neither of which is used in any other way. As such, Liuwar could be said to have grammaticalised time marking. In all three dialects, time is marked at the very start of the utterance, and usually not repeated except for clarity.
In Standard Lartau literary traditions, a greater variance is seen among time markers, though arguably these are simply adverbial time words, not grammatical units.
All spoken forms of Lartau tend toward dropping time marking.
SL distinguishes 5 aspects grammatically, 4 marked, and one unmarked. Unlike modal auxiliaries (below), aspect particles do not effect word order. The particle occurs immediately after the main verb in most instances, though in modal, dependent and object-focus constructions, the particle becomes clause final. The meaning varies somewhat depending on the class of the head verb.
Imperfect
Imperfective Active verbs describe habitual, incomplete, continuous or serial actions.
õ-daár
that-man doà
run
He runs/will run/used to run.
Unmarked stative verbs likewise mark a simple state. Most prototypically, they are used to describe a current state, though they can also be used to describe unchanged, or presumably unchanged past states:
pīn-neo
behind-now tzoò-noár
mountain-gap mar
exceed liū
narrow
The mountain pass was too narrow.
In combination with reclassification compounds, imperfectives can also be used to describe incomplete or continuos actions.
sū-sū
bird-bird yaó-paàn
sit-fly ta
into qei
east
The birds are flying east
Imperfective eventive verbs describe incomplete or future events:
sīn-kën
in.front-person hoõ
NEG dō
meet õ-daár
that-man hoõ
NEG
I haven’t met him.
nen-no
EV-sleep
(I/you/he/she/they etc) will fall asleep.
Perfective kàn
Perfective verbs are marked with the particle kàn, and describe completed events and actions or changed states.
sīn-neo
in.front-now naí
SUBJ tsùn
drop õ-daár
that-man lā
down xeó
sword kàn
PERF yé
then qeù-dōn
fast-attack
When he has surrendered, we will strike.
Perfective stative verbs describe events or states that were but no longer are.
miū
book kei
be.red kàn
PERF
This book was red.
Perfective eventives, predictably, describe completed events. Perfective can be used in future time frames to explicate the sequence of events.
sī-diī
in.front-song õ-liī
that-woman pér
give kàn
PERF wó
ivory sīn
in.front sīnkën
in.front-person nende
EV-go
Tomorrow she’ll give me the ivory and I’ll go.
Durative tē
Durative verbs focus on the action as an event occurring over a period of time. It differs from the perfective and imperfective in so much as it focuses on the period during which the event has taken place, rather than it's completion or incompletion. Likewise, it is differentiated from the stative class, which focus on the state of performing an action or being in a given condition. Metaphorically, it could be said that statives’ temporality has depth, but are solid, whereas duratives are deep and hollow. It can also be used to mark an action which contains other actions.
naó-daár
holy-man tsà-lo
sanctify-light siú-non
peaceful-contemplate tē
DUR naù
glow
During meditation, Saint Tsa Lo would glow.
Durative aspect used in conjunction with stative verbs focus the period of the state, and can be used again to place one verb in the temporal structure of another. Furthermore, durative statives can be used for oppositional constructions.
õ-daár
that-man tseō
eat hoõ
NEG meē
ripe tē
DUR dèr
fruit hoõ
NEG
He ate the fruit before it was ripe.
teo
grain xeór
insufficient tē
DUR tám
do.best
The grain is insufficient, but we’ll do our best.
Durative aspect gives a degree of temporal depth to the otherwise more or less punctual eventive class of verbs. It is analogous to ‘as she was…’ in English.
õ-daár
that-man qo
finish tē
DUR gám
fall dù
ACI
He fell as he was finishing.
Accidental dù
Unlike the other aspects, accidental aspect does not effect a nouns temporal structure in any way. However, it behaves in every other way like an aspectual marker — same clausal position, cannot occur with other aspectual markers or be compounded in any way, meaning varies according to verb class, e.t.c. — and so has been treated in this portion of the grammar.
Accidental aspect can be used to mark both unintentional and unexpected actions and events. In spoken SL, it can also be used to indicate displeasure at an action or event, though the usage is considered non-standard and colloquial.
õ-daár
that-man tsùn
drop dù
ACI xeí
sword
He dropped his sword.
When used with a stative verb, the accidental aspect describes an undesirable condition. Despite the similarity between (b) and (c), the latter is markedly colloquial, as the implication is one of distaste, but the effect verb is active.
sīn-kèn
in.front-person yaó-doà
sit-run dù
ACI
I’m running (unfortunately).
sīn-kèn
in.front-person doà
run dù
ACI
Don't want to, but I've got to run.
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