The LV
 se ‘is’ has a total of four
positional variants, viz.,
se,
s-, ho-and-se. The following
is the distribution of these positional variants.
|
| |
se is a free form
s- occurs before the past
tense marker, -ile
ho- occurs before future tense marker
-se occurs before negative markers, as in :
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moy puali duyta
se ‘I have two
daughters’
otu kukur
sile
‘It was a dog’
otu kukur hobo ‘that
would be a dog’
moy lora ekta nse
‘I do not have a boy’, etc.
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| 3.3.3. |
Causatives:
|
The causative
constructions are not ordinarily used in this language. If it is found
absolutely essential to express causation, the different forms of the
word for ‘give’ is postponed to the future form of the verb concerned
and the noun/pronoun, that is the patient of causation shows the
dative case marker, as in :
|
| |
| poribi |
‘read (imp)’ |
| poribo dibi |
‘cause to read’ |
| 1 2
3 4 |
(lit. read future give
imp) |
| |
1 2
3 4 |
| tay kam korise |
‘he/she did the work’ |
| tak kam koribo dise |
‘caused him/her to do
the work |
| 1 2 3
4 5 6 7 |
(lit. he/she accusative
work do |
| |
1 2
3 4 |
| |
future give past) |
| |
5
6 7 |
tay mo se
khayse |
‘he/she ate the meat’ |
| tak moso
khobo dise |
‘caused her to eat
meat’ |
| tay myl
ek jabo |
‘he/she will walk a
mile’ |
| moy tak myl
ek jabo dibo |
‘I will cause him/her
to walk a mile’, etc. |
|
Double
causatives:
|
Though it
is possible to construct a sentence with a with a double causative, it
is never expressed in actual contact situations. Hence no examples
are cited.
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| 3.3.4. |
Grammatical
categories of the verb
|
The term
grammatical category was defined earlier (3.2.4). Three grammatical
categories occur with the verbs in the Naga Pidgin. These are : tense,
aspect and mood1. The time is a universal
non-linguistic concept with three divisions, viz., past, present and
future. The correspondence between the form of the verb and the
universal concept of time is known as tense and the manner in which
the verbal action is experienced or regarded as ‘completed’ or ‘in
progress’ is known as aspect. Though the actual segmentation of the
same experience of time and duration of an action differ from language
to language, all languages make use of the grammatical category of
tense and aspect to signal the time and duration of an action. These
are usually signaled either through certain inflectional devices or
through analytical devices. This language also has certain devices to
signal the time and duration of an action. Beginning with the tense, a
brief discussion of the grammatical categories in this language
follows:
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| 3.3.4.1. |
Tense
|
The tense may be
defined as that grammatical category which locates the time of action
in relation to the time of utterance and is expressed through
systematic grammatical oppositions. The traditional grammarians
recognize three such oppositions, viz., past, present and future.
These oppositions may be set up on the basis of the opposition on the
paradigmatic axis and/ or on the syntagmatic axis. On the pradigmatic
axis, the verbs in this language show a two-way opposition in tense,
viz., simple past and simple non-past, as in :
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| |
moy jayse
‘I went’
moy jabo ‘I will go’
|
The non-past
form usually indicates the future tense, but it is also used to
indicate the present tense, for instance, in the following question
and its answer, the tense marker indicates a present situation/
occasion:
|
| |
| kod jabo |
‘wher are you going’ |
| |
(lit. where go will) |
| |
1 2 3 |
| tay gorot jabo |
‘I am going to his/her
house’ |
| |
(lit. he/she house to go will) |
| |
1 2
3 4 5 |
|
1Please see Appendix 2, item No.22 for justification
for the setting up of these grammatical categories.
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