Re: Two part verbs (Why They Shouldn't Make Me Wait)

Den 7. des. 2006 kl. 02.40 skrev Mia Soderquist:

> While sitting in a waiting room recently, I scribbled out a system
> of verbs where every verb has two parts-- an auxiliary that carries
> tense/aspect/mode/person/number, and then the part that carries the
> content. I thought about a series of auxiliaries that don't mean
> anything on their own, but do contribute to the meaning of the verb
> phrase. For instance, there would be an auxiliary form that is used
> with verbs about "being", another for "doing",  "making", "having/
> acquiring", "giving/receiving", etc. Perhaps the same content word
> for mental action used with the "be" auxiliary would mean
> "believe", with "do" would mean "think", with "give/receive" would
> mean "feel (emotionally)".
It seems this phenomenon is quite widespread. I first heard about it
in Basque and my Gaajan is related to Basque, sharing a lot of the
vocabulary (though mostly unrecognisable because of various sound
shifts and ellipses) as well as the usage of auxiliaries.

I won't say Gaajan is doing exactly what you are envisaging (it has
been done enough already). The auxiliaries in Gaajan is limited to
two main forms, with different origin, 'ju' and 'a', marking the main
verb as intransitive and transitive respectively. With various
endings and prefixes, they mark the person of the subject and any
direct or indirect objects (eliminating any need for pronouns), as
well as the tense of the verb, the nature of the clause containing
the verb and sometimes a reference to another clause. The auxiliaries
always finish a clause and play a decisive role for determining the
structure of the sentence. Mood and aspect, including perfective, is
marked on the main verb normally.

The auxiliaries can be read as "is", "has" or "does", depending on
the content of the clause. In sentences with a subject, a direct
object and a main verb, the auxiliary gets a "does" meaning. In a
sentence with a subject, a direct object but no main verb, the
auxiliary means "has". In a sentence with a noun and a (following)
adjective or with two nouns, and no main verb, the auxiliary means
"is," and none of the nouns are marked as subject (that is, with the
ergative). The intransitive auxiliary can be used all by itself too,
when it means "yes" or "I do" or "I am" or similar, depending on the
context. Either the 1st person subject form (jut) or the 3rd person
subject form (ju) can be used.

LEF