Re: motion verbs in Tokana

Dirk Elzinga wrote:

>> I've now added a third category of motion verbs which
>> conflate both manner and trajectory.  These verbs are
>> formed by prefixing one of the trajectory verbs with a
>> "manner prefix", where the manner prefixes are
>> derived in quasi-regular fashion from the manner verbs:
>>
>>   pa-     "by running"
>>   si(h)-          "by swimming"
>>   ua(s)-          "by flying"
>>   kakla-          "by scurrying"        etc.
>>
>> Some examples:
>>
>>   pahepa          "run along the edge of"
>>   pahyla          "run past"
>>   pakloha         "run through"
>>
>>   silhyua         "swim into"
>>   sihsufa         "swim out of"
>>   sihnema         "swim around aimlessly"
>>
>>   uaskloha        "fly through"
>>   uastypa         "fly down and land (in a body of water)"
>>   uaskahpa        "fly down (to)"
>This reminds me of Uto-Aztecan instrumental prefixes--sort of.
>The UA prefixes indicate an instrument by means of which some
>activity is performed. Thus ky- 'with the teeth or mouth', ta-
>'with the feet', pi- 'with the buttocks', ku- 'with heat', etc.
>The difference being, of course, that the Tokana prefixes are
>really verbs as well, while the UA prefixes are nouns.
I actually got the idea from instrumental/manner prefixes in
Athabaskan, which work about the same way as in Uto-Aztecan.
Tokana also has UA-style instrumental prefixes, which I'm
considering conflating with the manner prefixes above:

  na-   "with the hands, by touching/hitting w/ o's hands"
  ko-   "with the feet/legs, by pushing/kicking w/ o's feet"
  mai-  "with the mind, by thinking"
  lhi-  "with the fingertips"
        etc.

So, from "lala" = "touch/feel", we can form "nalala" = "touch
with the hands", "kolala" = "touch with the feet", "mailala"
= lit. "touch with the mind" (i.e. agree with, concur with),
"lhilala" = "touch with the fingertips", etc.

I suppose that these prefixes could be added to trajectory verbs
as well, giving forms like "kokahpa" = "walk down (to)" (lit. "go
down (to) with one's feet"), or "mainema" = "be scatter-brained"
(lit. "wander around with one's mind").

I've also just introduced a manner prefix "o-", which means
"by speaking" or "in one's thought/conversation":  From "niokta"
= "return", we can thus form "oniokta" = "return to a previous
topic of discussion", and from "nema" = "wander around",
we can form "onema" = "wander from one topic of conversation
to another".

>This is very cool. I don't have any interesting things that I've
>done with motion verbs in either Tepa or Shemspreg, although for
>Shemspreg I've adopted the typical IE notion of preverbs. There
>is a set of prepositions which may be used as verbal prefixes to
>derive more verbs (in the spirit of English phrasal verbs like
>'turn on', 'hand out', 'get up'), but that's the extent of verb
>stuff of interest.
Tokana used to have these constructions too, forms like "up-climb",
"out-go", "away-run", "back-come".  But after I purged Tokana of
prepositions, having prepositionally-derived directional prefixes
began to seem anomalous.  With the introduction of manner prefixes,
trajectory is now encoded solely by verb roots, and the directional
prefixes can be eliminated.  So instead of "niokpenta" (= "back-run")
for "run back", Tokana now has "paniokta" (= "running-return", i.e.
"return by running").  This new way of doing things seems to me
to fit the 'spirit' of Tokana better.

Matt.