| ocü
|
‘house’ |
kali |
‘one’ |
| adi |
‘what’ |
lopüi |
‘that girl’ |
| otu |
‘domesticated bovine’ |
vü ho |
‘banana’ |
| sü |
‘to know’ |
ta |
‘to go away’ |
| mono |
‘to marry[sbj:sg.masc.] |
ango |
‘to tremble’ |
| phro |
‘to read’ |
atu |
‘to bounce [intr.]’ |
| to |
‘to eat’ |
ati |
‘to dawdle’ |
| hu |
‘to visit someone’s |
kra |
‘be white’ |
| |
house as a guest[vt]’ |
pfü |
‘to carry on back’ |
|
3.0.3.3.
|
The third type is
a word at all levels. Isolable without being elliptible,
members of this type come close to being lexical morphological
units. The type, however, has a remarkably limited membership.
e.g. le the future tense auxiliary. |
3.0.3.4.
|
The fourth type is
a convergence of phonological wordhood and interphrasal
and morphosyntactic non-wordhood. Postpositions [e.g. akuo
‘together with’ kotu ‘upto’ he ‘near’], conjunctions
[e.g.ye ‘and’ moli ‘or’], quotatives [e.g.
 o
‘that’], adverbs [eg. zhazha ‘often’, makra
‘constantly ; continuously’, to ‘properly’, mazhü
‘well’, mashü ‘badly’], intensifiers [eg. shu ‘very’]
illustrate this type. |
3.0.3.5.
|
The fifth type, the last
category of the Mao Naga word is a nonword at all levels All derivational
affixes and gender suffixes illustrate this type.
|
| 3.1. |
Word Classes |
| Word classes, variously called form-classes,
parts-of-speech, external distribution classes, in Mao Naga are Noun, Verb,
Noun Attribute [of which adjectives are a subclass], Adverb, Conjunction,
Particle and Postposition. These seven classes of word are established both
on morphological and syntactic criteria, the rest of the word classes need
to be established only on syntactic grounds. Pronouns are a subclass of
nouns. Numerals could prolong either to the word-class of Noun or Noun
Attributes. Whether it is a noun or a noun attribute is, however, a function
of syntax. We shall elucidate the defining criteria of each of the word
classes when we deal with them. As is typical of Tibeto-Burman languages,
Mao Naga has no extensive Sandhi phenomena. The remarkably little
morphophonemics that is found is dealt with in the respective sections. |
3.2.
|
Morphological Processes |
| The morphological processes in the language are
prefixation and suffixation, there being no suppletion employed. Prefixation
is used typically though not exclusively in derivation, and suffixation in
inflection. Inflection is exclusively by sufixation. |
3.3.
|
The Noun |
3.1.0
|
It is difficult to define in a
necessary and sufficient manner the noun in Mao Naga as a morphological
unit. While gender and number markers, the putative criterial attributes of
nounhood, are sufficient but not necessary, the capacity to be followed by
case markers and postpositions, and individuators [=definite articles]
constitutes a defining property of the noun phrase rather than of the noun
as a morphological unit. The potential to be followed by individuators/case
markers/postpositions, however, does mark the noun [phrase] as an external
distribution class that is structurally separate from other word-classes.
Note the operative word ‘potential’. In a given sentence, a noun[phrase] may
not have taken individuators/case markers/postpositions, but is capable of
taking one [of these] either mutatis mutandis in the given sentence
or in others. Thus, in
|
| 46
a. |
ai 1 |
larübvü 2 |
phro-we3 |
| |
I1 |
am reading3 |
[a] book]2
|
|
larübvü ‘book’ displays no overt characteristics
of a noun except the syntactic one of its [object] position
in the sentence. One could, however, have
|
| 46
b. |
ai1 |
larübvü2
-na-i3 |
phro-we4
|
| |
I1 |
am reading4
|
the3
book2 |
|
where the singular number marker -na and -i,
the individuator mark the nounhood of larübvü ‘book’. |
3.3.1.
|
Morphological Composition |
| 3.3.1.0. |
The initial
vocalic syllable |
|
The initial vocalic syllables are o-
and i-. i- occurs with a handful of
lexical roots. This section focuses only on o- which is
more common2 .
|
|
2.
|
This corresponds to
u- of the Shajouba dialect. Note that we haven’t
called it a prefix because it seems to have no morphemic
content. However by the criterion of recurrence of form
it could be considered an [empty] morpheme, and hence a
prefix.
|
