| la hem kethe-lo |
‘it is a big house’ |
| la kethe ahem-lo |
‘it is a big house’ |
|
3.4.
|
VERBS |
Verbs are those roots
which take the morphemes for tense, aspect and mood. Verbs can
be analysed into a set of verbal roots and a set of affixes. The
verb roots are of two types, viz., simple and derived. The
simple roots are monosyllabic or disyllabic. Many of the
disyllabic roots begin with i - or ar- which occur with noun roots also. The
derived roots are formed by compounding or derivation.
|
| 3.4.1. |
Verb Classes |
The verbs may be broadly
divided into two classes, viz., stative and active verbs. These
two classes of verbs behave differently to express negation.
Also the stative verbs do not take the transitive and causative
prefixes whereas the active verbs take these prefixes.
|
| Stative Verbs |
The existential and the possessive verb do ‘be, stay, have’ and the
nominal predicates and the descriptive predicates are the stative verbs
in Karbi.
|
In existential and
possessive sentences, negation is expressed by the suppletive
verb ave ‘be not, do not have’. The possessive negation is
also expressed by adding the negative marker -e after
reduplicating the consonant d of the verbal root.
|
| la hemchi do |
‘he is at home’ |
| la hem ave |
‘he is not at home’ |
| la hem dobe |
‘he does not stay at home’ |
| hadak ok do |
‘there is fish’ |
| hadak ok ave |
‘there is no fish’ |
| na
hem do |
‘you have a house’ |
| na
hem ave |
‘you do not have a house’ |
|
|
monit ake
honi do |
|
‘man has two legs’ |
|
monit ake
hophli ave |
|
‘man does not have four
legs’ |
|
monit kayta ake
hophli dode |
|
‘man never has four
legs’ |
Note that ave
can be followed by the verbal markers.
|
The equation
sentences, negation is expressed by adding the form kali
after the nominal predicate.
|
| la thepi
|
‘it is a tree’ |
la thepi
kali
|
‘it is not a tree’
|
|
