da?-pere? (ko a)
|
‘(the boy) who fills
the water’ |
kiciri-akiri
(sau) |
‘(the merchant) who
sells the cloth. |
| As stated
before, constructions like the above may be treated as a phrase
as well as a clause. As a phrase the two will be translated as ‘water-filler’
and ‘cloth-seller’ respectively. |
| 3.1.2.2.2.
Prases with perfect marker /-akan/: |
| The bound
morpheme /-akan/ may be suffixed to any verb base to indicate any
action having been completed in respect of the following noun and
thus the phrase may function as an adjective. For example: |
pere? akan
(ca u?)
|
‘the
filled up (pitcher)’
|
hiju? akan
(horo)
|
‘the having
arrived (man)’
|
|
|
| Such phrases
may also function as a clause within a sentence. |
| 3.1.2.2.3.
Phrases with the aspect markers /-tan/ etc.: |
| The bound
morpheme /-tan/ also may be suffixed to a verb base to denote continuity
of an action with respect to the noun, which such a phrase modifies.
as in example: |
|
sen-ta ‘one, who is going’
|
| The past forms,
similarly, may be suffixed, with the same function: |
|
sen-ked ‘one, who went’
|
| The indeterminate
form of /-a/ will yield a phrase like seno?a hoo
‘the man who is or has to go’. |
| 3.1.2.3.
With intensifiers: |
| Semantically,
the intensifiers are of several types. There are number of particles
which are used for laying emphasis on a quality. Some particles
are used as comparison markers, other as probability markers and
yet another type of intensifiers are marked structurally by repetitions.
Some of them are bound forms, some loosely bound and some free.
Any of these morphemes may be used singly or in compound forms.
All the four types of the intensifiers in this way form adjective
phrases in Mundari, along with the main adjectives. These are endocentric
cosntructions. |
| 3.1.2.3.1.
With emphatic particles: |
| There are
two main types of emphatic particles, one which preecede the main
adjective and are free forms such as isu, pura?, oo?
or compounds like pura?ge isupura? and theother which follow the
nucleus adjectives. The latter forms may be either bound or free.
The bound suffixes are ge, do, no? etc., or compounds like ‘doge’.
The free forms used as intensifiers and following the main adjective
are leka, tera or compounds like terado, puraterado. On morphological
level there is an infix -p- to lay emphasis on the adjective as
in the case of maraN ‘very
big’. The following are some examples for such intensifiers: |
isu mara
|
‘very big’
|
|
pura?ge rasika
|
‘very much
pleased’
|
hui-ge
|
‘small
enough’
|
mara
leka
|
‘really big’
|
|
|
| 3.1.2.3.2.
With comparison markers: |
| Mundari lacks
any form which may be identified as actual comparison marker. Generally,
the number of emphatic particles indicates the comparative value
of any quality. /oo?/ is used
as comparative form as in the following examples, in preceding positions: |
oo?bugin
|
‘better’ literally
means ‘good in more quantity’
|
oo?
uiu
|
‘more anxious’
|
|
|
| For, superlative,
the form/utar/ is juxtaposed to the nucleus adjective in following
position: |
|
bugin utar ‘best’
|
| 3.1.2.3.3.
With probablity marker: The indefinitive demonstative ja? alone
or with ge as in geja? may be suffixed to the main adjective to
indicate the probability of the quality: |
mara
ja?
|
‘big perhaps’
|
mara-geja?
|
‘perhaps big
enough’
|
|
|
