A simple adverb like tat
‘there’ can substitute the phrase dukan pora ‘from the shop’ as in :
|
tay tat jayse
‘he/she went there’
|
Whereas when a noun is
modified by a particle or adjective, its grammatical class is not
affected, as in:
|
| moybi jayse |
‘I also went’ |
| 1 2
3 |
1 2
3 |
| kitabtu poribo |
‘read (the specific)
book’ etc. |
| 1
2 3 |
|
|
A post position can be
formally defined as that sub-class of indeclinable which follow a
noun/pronoun/numeral, but the combined form, viz., the
noun/pronoun/numeral + the post position would not occur in their
respective slots, rather in the slots for modifiers like adverb and
adjectives.
|
Particles :
|
There are a few particles in
this language. All of them are invariables. They occur after the
nouns, pronouns and the numerals.
|
Functionally, the particles
are determiners, as in:
|
moy bi jayse
kitabbi dibi
trityorbi dibi
tayhi khuri katise
|
‘I also
went’
‘give the book also’
‘give the third also’
‘he (and not anyone else’
who cut the tree or ‘he himself cut the tree’ |
|
|
1
2 4
3 |
| kitabtu poribi |
‘read (the
specific) book’ etc |
| 1
2 3 |
3
2 1 |
|
The particles can occur in
both subjective and predicative constructions, as in:
|
tay khuritu
katise
tay khuri katise
loratu khuritu katise |
‘he cut (the particular) tree’
‘he cut a tree’
‘the boy (specific) cut (the particular;) tree’ etc.
|
|
What is important to note is
that when a particular particle co-occurs with another grammatical
class, the combined form would retain the original grammatical class
of the class with which the particle occurs whereas when a post
position co-occurs with another grammatical class as mentioned
earlier, the combined form woudl belong to a third grammatical class.
A detailed description of the different grammatical classes follows.
|
Description of Nominals:
|
The nouns, pronouns and
numerals were the sub-group of variables that were included under the
nominals. Each of them has a separate morphological construction. A
detailed description of the morphological construction,
sub-classification, etc. of these grammatical classes follow.
|
Nouns:
|
A noun in this language was
defined as that grammatical class which on the paradigmatic axis is
capable of showing contrast in case and number but not in person or
tense and on the syntagmatic axis functions as the nucleus of a noun
phrase. A few examples illustrating the contrast in number and case
are given below.
|
| chokra |
‘boy' |
chokrakhan |
‘boys’ |
| suali |
‘girl’ |
sualikhan |
‘girls’ |
| chokrake |
'to the boy’ |
chokrakhanke |
‘to the boys’ |
| sualike |
‘to the girl’ |
sualikhanke |
‘to the girls’ |
|
Morphological construction:
|
A few examples illustrating
the opposition in number and case available with the nouns in this
language were given above. From the illustrative examples given above,
the morphological construction of a noun can be stated as:
|
N---------------------- Root
± plural ± case
|
There is not special
limitations in the use of these two grammatical categories with a noun
except that when both the number and case markers occur with a noun
root, the number marker precedes the case marker. The morphological
construction of a noun in this language has a total of four types,
viz.,
|
| Root alone |
suali |
‘girl’ |
| Root+case |
sualike |
‘to the girl’ |
| Root+number |
sualikhan |
‘girls’ |
Root+number
+case |
Sualikhanke |
‘to the girls’ etc. |
|
It might, however, be noted
that certain sub-groups of nouns do not show any overt number markers,
but would take case markers, as in:
|
| lati |
‘stick/s’ |
| latite |
‘in the stick/s’ |
| nodi |
‘river/rivers’ |
nodite
|
‘in the river/s’ etc.
|
|
