Some weird verbs in Ayeri

Hello,

Yes, it's me ... I haven't been reading the list for about
10 weeks or so, but anyway. I have a question about a
certain group of verbs in Ayeri that I don't know how to
categorize. The verbs in question are _no-_ 'to want',
_mea-_ 'shall', _kila-_, 'may', _rua-_, 'must', _ilta-_ 'to
need', _vaty-_ 'to like', and _ming-_ 'can'. Most of these
are typical modal verbs in English, but see here:

First your friendly verb from next door:

(1)  Sa      silv-yang    va -Ø
     FOC=PAT see -1sg.AGT 2sg-FOC
     "I see YOU."

And now one of the verbs from above, but regular(ized):

(2a) Le           no  -yang    kanka-Ø.
     FOC=PAT.inan want-1sg.AGT milk -FOC
     "I want MILK." (as said e.g. by an impatient child)

And now more polite:

(2b) Pinyan, le      no   tah -ong -yang    kanka-Ø  -kay.
     please  FOC=PAT want have-SUBJ-1sg.AGT milk -FOC-bit
     "I'd want to have a bit of MILK please."

And yet another example:

(3)  Pa-  sara-yang    tor  -yam.
     FUT1-go  -1sg.AGT sleep-PTCP
     "I'll go to sleep in a moment."

So as you can see, in (2b) not the modal/auxiliary verb is
conjugated here like in English, French or German, but the
content verb is. So what should I call this closed class of
verbs I listed above then given that all other verbs work
like in (3) when used as modal verbs? Or is my analysis
maybe wrong?

Thanks for your help,
Carsten


--
Tingraena, Nankyu 1, 2317 ya 03:30:44 pd
Sunday, October 14, 2007 at 09:37:13 pm

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