Re: word derivation in sabyuka (some principles)

le dim 14-07-2002 à 17:49, Roger Mills a écrit :

> >'yol' "to cry" > 'yekol' "to rain"
> >'teq' "to tell" > 'tekeq' "to sing"
> >'mat' "to see" > 'mekat' "to desire"
> >"dem" " to do" > 'dekem' "to build"
>
>
> Nice.  In the first three, one can see that -ek- might mean "a special sort
> of VERB"; perhaps a more precise gloss for mekat could be "to ogle"? or "to
> covet"?
Yes, "to covet" is much better as a gloss of 'mekat' ;). "To desire" is
a too specialised meaning.


> But dem/dekem looks more like a straightforward causative. Like Christophe
> and Nik, I'd be curious to know how productive the infix is.
I hadn't thought it that way, because "to build" seems to be rather an
active ("to make X") than a resultative verb  ("have X be made" or "make
X do Y"). At least this is the meaning I wanted to point out, maybe the
english verb is more subtle. Anyway, this infix will be a great part of
the grammar just because of its so different meanings. It is somewhat an
all-purpose derivation infix that can allow to get another root from a
previous one. I'll work it as soon as possible ;).