Re: "Abilitative" aspect?
From: | Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...> |
Date: | Thursday, October 24, 2002, 21:07 |
Ian Maxwell wrote:
> Does anyone know of an existing language (conlangs included) that marks
> any of these?
I would also consider these modes.
Uatakassi marks these with what I call auxiliaries, suffixed to the
verb, altho, unlike in English, they cannot occur without a verb. So,
you can't say "I can't", but rather "I can't [verb]".
The known auxiliaries:
-pas "able to"
-fas "unable to"
-daku/-sku "enjoy" (-sku used after vowels)
-kais "fear, be afraid to"
-pis "know how to"
-filpis "not know how to"
-vukati "cause" (note: Vukati as an independant verb means "to put")
-liba "must"
-fliba "must not"
-nini "need to"
-ni "want to"
-fini/-fni "want not to" (-fni after vowels)
In addition, there is a group that I call "semi-auxilaries", which are
verbs that may be used as free verbs or may be suffixed as auxilaries:
Vazia "act out of rage; ____ out of rage/angrily"
Lifai "begin; begin to _____"
Zlutaflan "decide; decide to_____"
Tli "hope; hope to _____"
Livadi "stop; stop _____ing"
Latas "try; try to _____"
Thus, with a verb like _mitas_ "run", you get the following forms (-uki
is the 1st perosn nonpunctual ending):
Mitaspasuki - "I can run"
Mitasfasuki - "I can't run"
Mitazdakuuki - "I enjoy running" (note the regressive assimilation, /sd/
-> /zd/)
Mitaskaisuki - "I am afraid to run"
Mitaspisuki - "I know how to run"
Mitasfilpisuki - "I don't know how to run"
Mitazvukatiuki - "I cause [someone] to run"
Mitaslibauki - "I must run"
Mitasflibauki - "I must not run"
Mitasniniuki - "I need to run"
Mitasniuki - "I want to run"
Mitasfiniuki - "I want to not run"
Mitazvaziauki - "I run out of rage, I run angrily"
Mitaslifaiki - "I begin to run" (regular change, ai + u -> ai; likewise,
au + i -> au)
Mitazzlutaflanuki - "I decide to run"
Mitast'iliuki - "I hope to run" (tli -> t'ili [tsili] or [tili] as a
result of epenthesis, [tlj] -> [tilj], and in some dialects, [ti] ->
[tsi])
Mitaslivadiuki - "I stop running"
Mitaslatasuki - "I try to run"
--
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you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
overheard
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