Syntax and Word Classes Mbula language

1 syntax , word classes

1.1 verbs , prepositions
1.2 verbs , adverbs
1.3 verbs , instrumental nouns
1.4 nouns
1.5 pronouns
1.6 verbs

1.6.1 uninflected verbs


1.7 adverbials
1.8 quantifiers
1.9 prepositions

1.9.1 prepositional verbs


1.10 demonstratives
1.11 complementizers
1.12 conjunctions
1.13 interjections

syntax , word classes

in ideal grammar each classificatory word type belong 1 category , in mbula case. however, in following 3 areas, word-forms exist hard nail down 1 or other:

the occurrence of form in wide range of conversational environments can result in gradual loss of morphological features not appropriate particular conversational environments morphological gain of features appropriate other conversational environments. can mean either category shift of word class or general greying of word classes iron clad categories.

verbs , prepositions

prototypical verbs , prototypical prepositions exist along cline verbs @ start, prepositions @ end, , multicategoried word types in middle:

verbs , adverbs

prototypical verbs , adverbs exist along cline verbs @ start, adverbs @ end , multicategoried word types in middle:

verbs , instrumental nouns

verbs , instrumental nouns crossover in verbs theoretically derived these nouns appear in identical form. i.e., there no overt morphological derivation might indicate direction derivation has occurred in. examples include:

didi - wall

-didi - wall in

peeze - paddle

-peeze - paddle

kor - implement sweeping

-kor - sweep using implement

ris - line

-ris - draw line

nouns

there no syntactic distinction between nouns , adjectives in mbula. nouns syntactically distinguished following 3 characteristics:

there 8 semantic features of noun referents important characterising morphosyntactic behaviour of mbula nouns:

pronouns

pronouns make following person/number distinctions.

1 singular
1 dual exclusive
1 dual inclusive
1 plural exclusive
1 plural inclusive
2 singular
2 dual
2 plural
3 singular
3 dual
3 plural

pronouns inflect nominative, accusative, referent , locative cases. pronouns composed of initial case marker plus person-number marker. nominative series of pronouns used encode animate participants function subjects. there 3 demonstrative pronouns: ingi (this one, these ones), ina (that one, ones) , inga (that 1 on there, ones on there). accusative pronouns encode animate participants function objects. referent pronouns encode virtually animate oblique argument. locative pronouns indicate animate location toward action taking place in dynamic predications, or @ item located. locative form used encode possession. interrogative pronouns such who, when, where, operate in replacement fashion. is, interrogative pronoun used in place of normal syntactic position of item being questioned.

verbs

the characteristic syntactic function of verbs act heads of predications in occur. defined number of properties:

uninflected verbs

there several categories of non-inflecting verbs in mbula:

all of these non-inflecting verbs function predicates in clauses. cannot function heads of noun phrases , cannot function restrictive modifiers of nouns unless relativised or nominalised. syntactically, resemble inflected verbs. distinguished other verbs morphologically.

adverbials

the reason class called adverbials , not adverbs because mbula contains large collection of words defined modifiers of constituents other nouns. semantically, such forms typically encode notions of time, aspect, manner , modality.

quantifiers

quantifiers uninflected forms occur in noun phrases following nouns, locative/alienable genitive pronouns, , attributive stative nouns, before determiners, locative/alienable genitive prepositional phrases, relative clauses , demonstratives. mbula counting system based upon notions of 5 , twenty.

prepositions

prepositions uninflected forms govern single noun phrase complement , relate head or predicate. mbula employs 5 categories of prepositions:

prepositional verbs

these forms set of optionally inflected verbs occur in serialisations functioning case markers. may potentially contain inflection third person singular in these serialisations depart typical uninflected preposition. however, retain prepositional function of relating dependent noun phrase verbal head.

demonstratives

demonstratives in mbula include determiners occur in noun phrases , 1 may call locative adverbial use - demonstratives encode location in sentences. because there no morphological distinction between two, considered constitute single class.

complementizers

complementisers uninflected forms govern following sentence. combination of complementiser , following sentence becomes constituent in noun or predicate phrase. mbula contains 7 types of complementiser:

conjunctions

there great deal of conjunctions in mbula each encode own subtly different meaning. however, conjunctions fall broadly 4 categories: temporal conjunctions, conditional conjunctions, causal conjunctions , disjunctions.

interjections

there number of interjections in mbula, of play no role in grammar of language, function convey speaker s attitudes , intentions. occur sentence , include following examples:

a - want ais - want ha - hear something, don t know ii - don t know lak - want ask som - not agree yo(o) - did ywe - think bad