Talk:Siye Verbal Morphology

Converbals

-nam- 'begin to X but didn't finish

-neme- 'can't stop Xing' (+imperfective)

le kenolo elapunemetuma.

I can't stop buying books.

-teka- 'should X' (+ma, +mu)

-teka- triggers the realis mood.

(Le) nesakam elesupusum' 'teka' 'sume.

I should send a letter.

-teka- 'would like to X' (+me, +meku)

-teka- triggers the subjunctive or contrafactual moods.

(Le) nesakam elesupusum' 'teka' 'sume.

I would like to send a letter.

Dummy Verbs with Converbals

Many concepts expressed as independent verbs in English and other terrestrial languages are expressed by a dummy verb with a converbal suffix. The intransitive dummy verb is kim 'to be'. The transitive verb is nu/ke 'to do/make'.

-te-

elenuputema.

I want it.

-ka-

elekepukana.

I have resolved to do it.

lekimpukana.

I am resolved.

elenupunamma.

I began to do it.

Participle Structure

Siye participles are derived from Siye verbs. The verb is stripped of its pronominal prefixes and therefore the person suffix. Roots which supplete according to aspect still do so. There are in fact more suppletive roots for participles than finite verbs, since the initial stress and the lack of any pronominal prefixes preserved weak verb-initial roots. The characteristic suffix of the participle is the nominalizer. There are three nominalizing suffixes -yam, -ki, -kim, which convert the participle to a nominal stem which can take number and case suffixes. -yam creates active, mostly animate nouns; these are usually imperfective unless the converbal suffix requires perfective. -ki creates passive, mostly inanimate nouns; counter-intuitively, it also creates instrumental nouns. In general, the participles with perfective aspect have a passive meaning, while those with imperfective aspect have instrumental meaning. -kim creates inanimate place names.

1. Root

2. Causative

3. Converbal

4. Directional

5. Aspect

6. Mode

7. Nominalizer

-ki: passive, instrumental

namtunaki- - door; itumaki- - key

-kim: locative

amakim- - market

-yam: active, ergative

amayam- - merchant

susumsuyam- - messenger, missionary

8. Grammatical Number

9. Case