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Fixed-subject verbs which have a fixed noun as their subjects. Verbs belonging to this class are typically verbs descriptive of weather phenomena or conditions. t

‘weather’ is the noun of which the predication is made. In the third example, k

is a locative noun phrase

(t)r¹ ty²	‘It¹ will² rain¹’
t mko	‘It is cold’
kwhr¹ t mk² ph³	‘Kohima¹ is² very³ cold²’

6.2 Valency-Role markers

The semantics of the verb in terms of its relation with the other constituents of the sentence like subject, object may be morphologically marked.

(1) -lie marks ‘two-participant’ action verbs whose subjcets are immediate recipients of the action indentified by the verb. This is homophonous with the imperative and the exertive mood markers.

khr	‘to buy’
¹ bli² pu³ khrli⁴ ty5	‘I¹ will⁵ buy⁴ a³ shirt²’
pi	‘to receive’
pu¹ praz² pili³	‘He¹ received³ (a) prize²’‘He¹ received³ (a) prize²’
mhts	‘to eat’
vu¹ mhtsli² kh³	‘Let³ us (incl.du.)¹ eat²’
thp	‘to borrow’
pu¹ ² pn³ thpli⁴	‘He¹ borrowed⁴ my² pen³’
thk	‘to adopt’
puni¹ ny² pu³ thkli⁴	‘They (du.)¹ adopted⁴ a³ child²’
ch	‘to beg’
¹ pris² chli³ ty⁴	‘I¹ will⁴ beg³ for money²’

(2) -w

marks ‘two-participant’ action-process verbs whose direct objects undergo some change of state/condition by the action and whose subjects are not the recipients of the action identified by the verb except when the subject and the object are coreferential as in the first two examples below.

dz rl	‘to bathe’
dz rlwli	‘bathe!’

____________________

¹²We shall call a verb ‘zero-participant’ ‘one-participant’, ‘two-participant’ or ‘three-participant’ depending on the number of nouns it intrinisically requires. Zero-participant and one-participant verbs will be intransitive and two-participant verbs transitive three-participant verbs will be ditranitive. They are also called two-place or two-argument predicates and so on.

dkhr to kill’
pu¹ puthy² pu³ dkhrw³	‘He¹ killed³ himself²’
¹ dljrwji²	‘Don’t kill² me¹’
dth	‘to cut (as rope)’
kr¹ dthwli²	‘Cut² the rope¹’
khs	‘to release’
kdik1 nn² pu³	‘He³ was released⁴ from² (the)
khswt⁴	prison¹’
pmh	‘to extinguish’
m1 pmhwli²	‘Put out² the fire¹’
mk	‘to bite’
tf¹ ² mkw³	‘(The) dog¹ bit³ me²’

(3) -s

marks ‘two-participant’ or three-participant’ action verbs whose subjects are the source or transmitters of the action indentified by the verb. Apart from this source meaning -s

also may mean that the beneficiary of the action is someone other than the subject. This marker is homophonous with the ease mood or the diminutive action mood marker and the recent past-durative aspect marker.

p	‘to speak’
psli	‘Speak!’
pth	‘to teach’
¹ tdi² pths³	‘I¹ taught³ Angami²’
¹ tahslici²	‘Advise² me¹’
thp	‘to lend’
pi r¹ rk² ph³
pi⁴ ⁵ thpsli⁴	‘Please¹ lend⁴ me⁵ five³ rupees²’
tsl tsh	‘to sing’
pu¹ tsli² pu³ tshs⁴	‘She¹ sang⁴ a³ song²’

(4) -t

marks one-participant i.e. intransitive process verbs or action verbs.

v	‘to bear fruit’
sb¹ v² i³ t² ty⁴	‘The tree¹ will⁴ bear fruit² soon³’
ty	‘to go away’
i	‘to die’
pu it	‘He died’

z	‘to melt (Intr.)’
s1 zt²	‘It¹ melted²’

has positional variants. It is t

in the word-final position in a morphological canstruction and necessarily t

in a non-final position.

This marker is homophonous with the definitive mood marker and the perfetive aspect marker.


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