Re: THEORY: When is a verb not a verb?

Hmmm.

Shoshoni has a couple of these as well. But the available descriptions vary
in calling them incorporating verbs (Crum and Dayley 1993) and verbalizing
suffixes (Miller 1996). As an example, adding -pai to a noun stem results in
a verb meaning 'have N':

kahni 'house'
kahnipai 'have a house'

The verb 'kahnipai' is deficient in that it does not allow the full range of
tense and aspect suffixes one would expect with a verb, so it's a verb ...
sort of.

I suspect that the label 'verbal specifier' used for similar things in
Inuktitut also makes reference to other properties that they have, perhaps
based on the particular theory of morpho-syntax used to describe their
behavior (for me, the word 'specifier' is a code-word for
principles-and-parameters style syntax). So before adopting the label for
Uinlitska, it might be helpful to see what else they do in Inuktitut.

Dirk

On Jan 27, 2008 3:22 PM, David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...> wrote:

> These are what are called in languages like Inuktitut verbal
> specifiers.  By themselves, they are not verbs, because you can't
> use them like verbs.  When /-hita/ combines with /minan/, the
> result is a verb.  A verbal specifier seems like a nice enough
> name.  For a discussion in one of my languages, you can go here:
>
> <http://dedalvs.free.fr/epiq/specifiers.html#interlude>
>
> -David
> *******************************************************************
> "sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze."
> "No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."
>
> -Jim Morrison
>
> http://dedalvs.free.fr/
>
> On Jan 27, 2008, at 2∞14 PM, Paul Bennett wrote:
>
> > On Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:30:00 -0500, David J. Peterson
> > <dedalvs@...> wrote:
> >
> >> A general reply: Can you show some concrete examples?  That's
> >> the first thing I would look for if I were a field linguist.  :)
> >
> > For the verbs in question, -m (to be able to use X) and -hīta (to
> > fetch X (to go and get X from somewhere else))...
> >
> > uínlītska /wi:nli~tSkA/ - the Uínlītska language
> > uínlītskam /wi:nli~tSkAm/ - *"to be able to speak" Uínlītska
> > intuínlītskam /indwui:nlitSkam/ - I can speak Uínlītska
> > uínlītskamu /wi:nlitSkamo/ - He can speak Uínlītska
> > uilī intuínlītskam - I will be able to speak Uínlītska
> > hafā intuínlītskam - I have been taught (lit. I have been able)
> > to speak Uínlītska
> > ú intuínlītskam - I was able to speak Uínlītska
> >
> > mínan /mi:nan/ - berries
> > mínanhīta /mi:nanxi~tA/ - *"to fetch" berries
> > inmínanhīta /inmi:nanxi~tA/ - I am fetching berries
> > mínanhītu /mi:nanxi~tu/ - he is fetching berries
> > uilī inmínanhīta - I will fetch berries
> > hafā inmínanhīta - I have fetched berries
> > ú inmínanhīta - I was fetching berries
> >
> >
> >
> > Paul
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/
>


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