2.3.3.
|
Sentences as Intensifiers : |
The syntactic construction /ąlyay m/ ‘in-comparably’ is often used as an intensifier with
adjectives and adverbs. The construction is analyzable as /ą - lya - y
m/ `be - par - not’ and always precedes the modified adjective
or adverb. With adjectives, it occurs only when a simple intensifier stem
is present.
|
| /ąlyaym1
thįyg2 grag3/ |
`very3
highly1
poisonous2’
|
|
With adjectives that do not have
lexical intensifiers and the adverbs, it occurs alone.
|
/ąlya
m
dra / |
`very big’ |
incomparably big
|
|
|
2.4.
|
Particles
|
The particles belong to a small closed set of words which
are morphologically invariable and do not enter into true syntactic
constructions with other syntactic components. They either stand apart like
exclamations or relate events in discourse like the coordinators.
|
| /la/ |
`vocative’ |
| /wembe/ |
`or’ |
| /takhru/ |
`though’ |
| /wewe/ |
`so’ |
| /kya/ |
`interrogative’ |
| /ma/ |
`one of a pair (reciprocal)’ |
| /mu/ |
`one out of many (conjunctive)’ |
/ąm/
|
`yes’
|
|
2.5.
|
Verb
|
2.5.1.
|
Nature of Verbs :
|
A verb, in Mishmi, is defined as any
word that has been inflected for tense and mood. It is present in all but a
few sentences which have a nominal predicate. The citation forms of the
verbs occur with the suffix /-yą/.
|
| /hanįyą/ |
`to come’ |
| /bóyą/ |
`to go’ |
/hw yą/
|
`to see’
|
|
The verbs occur as predicates and
form an open set of words comprising terms referring to actions, states
and processes discussed in detail in section 2.5.2.2.
|
2.5.2.
|
Classification of Verbs :
|
2.5.2.1.
|
Transitivity :
|
Syntactically, verbs, in Mishmi, are identified lexically
for transitivity by the number of arguments that are present in the
sentence. Thus we get a four-way classification of verbs taking into
consideration the subject, the object and the dative object.
|
2.5.2.1.1.
|
Ambient Verbs :
|
These require neither a subject nor
an object. The verbs indicate a total environment
|
