Gerunds in Silindion

Gerunds

In Silindion, there are six different gerunds, which are mostly used to indicate the relation of one action to the action of the main verb. The action may be either be coinciding with the main verb or anterior to it. The action may be why the main verb is done, that is, a purpose clause. These are the sorts of relations that the gerund can express in Silindion. There types of gerunds are the following, nominal, anterior, abessive, anterior, conjunctive, necessitive, adjectival.

Nominal Gerund

The nominal gerund is formed by adding the ending <-na> to the stem of the verb. For vowel stems this is not a major obstactle, as the following examples show:

• <mi-> "to fall" -> <mina> "falling"
• <yalma-> "to harp" -> <yalmana> "harping"
• <lissu-> "to live" -> <lissuna> "living"

• The nominal gerund is a d_stem in vowel verbs like this.

For consonant verbs, there are some consonant assimilations that take place when the gerund ending is added.

Stem Type	Assimilation	Example
T-STEMS	-t+na -> -nta	<pet-> "to eat" -> <penta> "eating" (an a-stem)
D-STEMS	-d+na -> -nda	<sid-> "to sit" -> <sinda> "sitting" (an a-stem)
N-STEMS	-n+na -> -nna	<lin-> "to play" -> <linna> "playing" (a d-stem)
P-STEMS	-p+na -> -mpa	<nep-> "to sing" -> <nempa> "singing" (an a-stem)