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

> 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)".
See the section in my grammar of ngwaalq on verb classifiers:

www.chrisdb.me.uk/temp/grammar.pdf

ngwaalq does exactly what you're describing. Every verb takes one or
more verb classifiers that classify the kind of action it refers to, and
those classifiers take the evidentiality and mood marking. However,
unlike your system, ngwaalq verb classifiers can be used on their own...

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