Re: A Survey

Rob Haden <magwich78@...> wrote:

> I'm curious to see everyone's answers to the following questions:
>
> 1. Does your language(s) distinguish between active ("X breaks Y"), middle
> ("X breaks (apart)"), and passive ("X is broken (by Y)")?
Stálág groups middle and passive:

    nukkos     'AGT breaks PAT'
    nukkakwos  'PAT breaks (apart)' or 'PAT is broken'

You can also have a primitive that is mediopassive, and a derived active
(a causative):

    himmos     'PAT passes, goes away'
    himmaddos  'AGT leaves PAT behind'

    ukjo    'PAT is seen', 'PAT shows itself'
    ukjiddo 'AGT shows (off) PAT', 'AGT reveals PAT'

> 2. If the answer to #1 was "yes," what method(s) does your language(s) use
> to make some/all of the above distinctions?
Voice (either mediopassive or causative, as exemplified above), indicated
by a suffix over the verb root that makes a new stem.

> 3. What method(s) does your language(s) use to distinguish between basic
> nouns and verbs of the same root (i.e. "a hit" vs. "he hits")?
The verb root cannot appear alone, while noun roots may, in some combinations
of class/person/number. But in any case, deverbal nouns are often formed with
a suffix on the root.

    dmíd-  'celebrate' [dmi:d]
    dmídën 'they celebrated' [dmi:dEn]
    dmídm  'a celebration' [dmi:dm=]


--Pablo Flores
  http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/nyh/index.html
  "The future is all around us, waiting, in moments
   of transition, to be born in moments of revelation.
   No one knows the shape of that future or where it
   will take us. We know only that it is always born
   in pain."  -- G'Kar quoting G'Quon, in "Babylon 5"