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4. Verb Morphology

     The verb in Ao is defined as a morpheme capable of taking tense/aspect markers or the imperative markers. The verbs in Ao are not marked for person-number-gender.

 
4.1. The Structure of the Verb :
 
       The structure of a simple verb in Ao may be defined as follows :
 
         (i)     Root
 
         (ii)    Prefix + Root
 
         (iii)    Root + Suffix
 
         (iv)    Prefix + Root + Suffix
 
     In the verbs which have a prefix, the prefix may be either the classificatory prefix /a/ and /me/ or the negative indicative prefix /ma/ (which becomes /me/ in certain contexts) and the negative imperative prefix /ta/ which becomes /te/ in certain contexts). The classificatory prefix /a/ ‘which is very common’ occurs with most verbs and it is difficult to fix a meaning for it. The prefix /me/, which occurs with a few verbs of action which require some physical or body force. It may be mentioned that the classificatory prefix /a/ is dropped in some contexts (cf. 1.7.). However, the classificatory prefix /me/ is not dropped.
                                        apu                   ‘to blow’
                                   
                                        acem                 ‘to drink’
 
                                        men                 ‘to laugh’
 
                                        meyò                 ‘to wash (clothes etc.)’
 
                                        mapu                 ‘not to blow’
 
                                        macem               ‘not to drink’
 
                                        memen              ‘not to laugh’
                                        memeyò              ‘not to wash’
 
                                        tapu                   ‘don’t blow’
                                        tacem                 ‘don’t drink’
                                        temen               ‘don’t laugh’
                                        temeyò                ‘don’t wash’
     There are a few verbs in Ao, which do not have any classificatory prefix :
                                        ck                     ‘to fall’
                                        yók                      ‘to send (a person)’
                                        zlu                     ‘to write’
                                        campí                   ‘to speak’
 
     When a verb has a suffix, the suffix may beeither an aspect marker or tense marker or the imperative marker. If there is an aspect marker and a tense marker as in the case of the durative constructions the tense marker is added to the auxiliary verb which follows the aspect marker.
 
                                        acem-c                       ‘will drink’
                                        drink will
                                        akin-c                         ‘will remove’
                                        remove will
                                        mesep-c                      ‘will kiss’
                                        kiss will
                                        menak-c                      ‘will lick’                                      
                                        lick will                                      
                                        mesepa                        ‘kiss !’
                                        kiss (imp.)
                                        menaka                        ‘lick !’
                                        lick (jmp).
                                        ní campí-y-a liyas          ‘I was speaking’
                                        I speak (Asp) was
 
 

 

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