On Wed, 12 Apr 2006 17:04:20 -0400, Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...>
wrote:
>On 4/12/06, Jeff Jones <jsjonesmiami@...> wrote:
> > 1. fokan Hwan mamakwe
> > Juan saw his mother.
>
> kan: root "see".
yes
> fo-, based on this, #7 and #8 is some kind of past tense prefix.
yes
> Not sure if this is "mama"+"kwe" with "kwe" being a personal suffix,
> or if "mamakwe" is the root with "his" inferred from context. In
> later sentences -kwe seems to be an infinitive verb suffix.
>
> > 2. kanko pasuna tuperu
> > I see the dog sleeping.
>
> "suna" : root "to sleep",
yes
> pa- probably a participial prefix?
> -ko: maybe 1SG verb suffix.
yes
> tuperu of course "dog".
"the dog", actually
> > 3. kopisuna
> > I'll sleep (sometime).
>
> pi- future tense? #9 and #6 suggest so.
yes
> Not sure about ko-, perhaps an indefiniteness marker. Would
>
> kofosuna
>
> mean "I slept (at some unspecified period)"?
yes
> > 4. etxa Hwan pakankwe tuperu
> > Juan wants to see the dog.
>
> Maybe pa-~-kwe forms the infinitive.
effectively so
> etxa - to want.
>
> > 5. Hwan tuadetxa pakankwe tuperu
> > It's Juan that wants to see the dog.
>
> Not sure what this tuad- prefix is about.
That's probably the trickiest part.
> > 6. appikantotz Hwan
> > Juan will see us here.
>
> ap- a 1PL object marker?
no; I'll mention that |ap| here and |ad| in #5 are the same morpheme -- I
know this is not transparent. There's another morpheme in the text that has
2 (related) forms.
> -totz a 3SG subject marker?
no
> But most other 3SG verbs aren't so marked.
that's right
> > 7. tzifosuna
> > We slept.
>
> tzi- 1PL subject prefix?
yes
> > 8. fokantzi mama Huan
> > We saw Juan's mother.
>
> Here -tzi seems to be a 1PL subject *suffix*.
yes
> Need to see a larger corpus to figure out when and
> why it prefixes or suffixes. And the use of "mama"
> by itself suggests that indeed "-kwe" in the first
> sentence is a personal suffix. Is it mere homophony
> that it looks like the "-kwe" in infinitives or are they
> really the same underlying word?
I consider them the same.
> > 9. pikantok tuperu suna
> > You'll see the sleeping dog.
>
> -tok : 2SG or 2PL subject suffix.
If my original message didn't have errors, that would be correct.
> Are NOUN VERB and PARTICIPLE-VERB NOUN
> in free variation or is there something about
> the contexts of #2 and #9 that requires a
> particular form in each case? Must wait
> for a larger corpus to decide.
Note that |pa-suna tuperu| is a clause (the dog is sleeping), while
|tupera suna| is a phrase (the sleeping dog).