Poswa locative verbs

Poswa locative verbs are verbs that govern the locative case instead of the accusative case as most other verbs do. They are always grammatically intransitive, even when they are syntactically transitive.

Structure

Locative verbs always directly follow a word in the locative case. There is no free word order. They are considered to be tied to their object in a way that ordinary wi verbs are not.

Use as unstressed suffixes

When an indefinite meaning is intended, any locative verb can be unstressed and treated as merely a suffix on the noun to which it relates. For example, using the word tipiam "nail", whose locative case is also tipiam, one can say

Tipiam babo.

I need the nail.

But

Tipiambabo.

I need a nail.

Verbs with metaphorical locative meanings

Not all locative verbs have a literal locative meaning.

dži pa

For example, the verb for "to become" is dži pa. It is both an irregular verb and one that places its object into the locative case rather than the accusative. The verb behaves mostly as if its stem were a hyper-regular p-. Thus one can say

Pobbam pebel.

He became an oak tree.

(The stem was originally tiša; this stem contracts to simply p- because of sound rules that are triggered in constructions such as this where two words are spelled separately but treated as a prosodic unit.) Because of the potential for confusion, this verb is usually used directly after its object; that is, the word order is not flexible the way it is for most accusative verbs. Thus, for example, one would not normally say

*Pobbam pwuwumbam pebel.

He became an oak tree in the forest.

Because the speaker would likely initially hear the sentence as if pwuwumbam "in the forest" were the object of the verb, and thus imagine a man becoming a forest while trapped inside an oak tree.

dži miswab

The concept of "to need, require" can be expressed by the locative verb dži miswab. Thus one can say

Tipiam miswabo.

I need a nail.

This can be abbreviated to just bo:

Tipiam babo.

I need a nail.

And can even be unstressed, so long as the object is indefinite, like all other dži verbs:

Tipiambabo.

I need a nail.

Furthermore,

Tipiambabom.

Because I need a nail.