| |
|
|
| Agent nouns
are derived either from relative participles or substantives by
suffixing -mie ‘person’ |
| |
| eg |
|
|
(1) d
|
‘to rule’ |
k d
|
‘ruling’ |
| kdmi
|
‘ruler’ |
|
|
(2) khr
|
‘to buy’ |
| kkhr
|
‘buying’ |
kkhrmi
|
‘buyer’ |
|
|
(3) rg
|
‘to steal’ |
| krg
|
‘stealing’ |
| krgmi
|
‘thief’ |
|
|
(4) pth
|
‘to teach’ |
| kpth
|
‘teaching’ |
| kpthmi
|
‘teacher’ |
|
|
(5) p
|
‘to speak’ |
| kp
|
‘speaking’ |
kpmi
|
‘speaker’ |
|
|
| (6) mh
|
‘to look’ |
| kmh
|
‘looking’ |
| kmhmi
|
‘on-looker’ |
| rz
kmhmi
‘spectator’ (rz:
‘play, show’) |
|
|
(7) t j
|
‘to lie’ |
| ktj
|
‘lying; lie’ |
ktj mi
|
‘liar’ |
|
|
(8) dk
|
‘shop’ |
| dkmi
|
‘shop-keeper’ |
|
|
(9) lh th
|
‘trade’ |
| lhthmi
|
‘merchant’ |
|
|
| (10) ktsh
|
‘pain; disease’ |
| ktshmi
|
‘patient’ |
|
|
| (11) rn
|
‘village’ |
| rnmi
|
‘villager’ |
|
|
| (12) ndimi
|
‘Indian’ |
| ngmir
|
‘Naga’ |
 hgmi
|
‘Angami’ |
|
| |
| A
substantive may also be formed by adding the article -
to the relative participle. |
| |
mh 
|
‘to be rich’ |
| mhk
|
‘being rich’ |
| mhk
|
‘the rich man’ |
| pru
|
‘to break’ |
prukt
|
‘breaking’ |
| prukt
|
‘the broken’ |
m ci
|
‘to be intelligent’ |
| mcikm
|
‘not being intelligent’ |
| v-ke-neg |
|
| mcikm
|
‘The one who is not intelligent; a dullard’ |
|
| |
| One class of
adverbs is formed by prefixing p-
to verbs (cf.7.0.1) |
| |
| 9.2
Word-compounding |
| |
| Word-compouding
is an extremely productive process of word-formation. |
| |
| A compound
word may be defined as a lexical unit which consists of two or
more roots and which is more unitary in reference than either
component. There, however, seems to be no formal criterion to
distinguish between compound words and (syntactic) phrases, as
noted in 5.1.0 The only criterion in the native speaker’s
intuition - a rather dudious criterion. |
| |
| Word
compounding seems to be more common with substructural than with
verbs. |
| |
| An Angami
comound noun may have any of the following structural patterns: |
| |
| (1) N+N
where the first substnative is purely descriptive. |
| (2)N+N where
the first substantive may be treated as being in genitive realtionship with the second. |
| (3) V+N
where V stands for verb in its relative participial form. |
| (4) N+Adj. |
