MORPHOLOGY

2.0.1. Word classes in Angami which are established on morphological and/or syntactic criteria are : Nouns, Verbs, Noun Attributes, Adverbs, Connectives and Particles : The first two viz. Nouns and Verbs may be established purely on morphological criteria while the rest of the word-classes are established on functional or syntagmatic criteria. Furthermore, Nouns and Verbs may be considered the major word-classes because they are more complex morphologically and they far outnumber the other classes. Pronouns form a sub-class of Nouns because like substantives they may be followed by case markers. The reflexive pronoun which does not take case markers is treated as a member of this class on syntagmatic criteria. Pronouns and Substantives behave alike syntactically in that both can occur as subject, direct object, indirect object etc. They are, however, in their morphological behaviour. Numerals, in fact, have an ambivalent position. By the syntactic criterion, they are Noun Attributes, but they come under the word-class Nouns by tow criteria : (a) they may be followed by case markers (b) they may occur as predicate nominals. Some Adverbs form a morphological word-class and some a syntactic word-class. Noun-Attributes established purely on syntactic criteria include ‘adjectives’ (cf. 5.0.0) numerals, quantifiers, demonstratives and relative clauses. Connectives are a syntactic class.