| Of
functioning as the nucleus of a noun phrase which, in addition to
the noun may consist of adjectives, numerals, demonstratives, postpositions
and particles. All the nouns do not share all the features mentioned
just now. In the case of some nouns, even when they share amongst
themselves certain features at the morphemic level, differences are
found at the sub-morphemic level. On the basis of the differences
found at various levels, the nouns in Sema can be sub-classified into
a few sub-classes. A discussion of these follows. |
| The
nouns referring to the animate being vs. inanimate beings |
| The
nouns in Sema can in the first instance be sub-divided into two, i.e.,
one group of nouns shares certain features that are not shared by
the other group. For instance, one group of nouns shows the following
features : |
| (i)
At the sub-morphemic level, the postposition/lawno/ `from’ has an
allomorph /lono/ which a group of nouns takes. Similarly the postpositions
/law/ `to/towards’ has a total of three allomorphs, of which the group
that takes /lono/ `from’ takes the form /lo/ `towards’ and for the
locative case this group takes the allomorph /alow/ `in’ as in: |
| niye
asö lono iFiwya |
`I
came from the tree’ |
| ino
akģlo wś |
`I
went to the house’ |
| kakuye
yakube alow anģ1 |
`the
book is in the table’ |
aFawye
ap slo
anģ |
`the
bird is in the nest’ |
|
|
| (ii)
At the syntagmatic level, the same group of nouns takes the adjective
/akaw/ `old’ and /k*tla/ `little’ as in : |
| akaw
yekube |
`old
table’ |
| ana
aFlo cśnģ |
`will
take some rice’ |
| ana
ktla
kphalģ |
`add
some more rice (imp)’ |
|
|
| As
opposed to these features, another group of nouns shares certain other
features, viz., |
| (i)
Taking the allomorphs /lawno/ `from’ and |
|
/law-ködaw/ `to/towards’ and the use of the allomorph |
| ino
hatoli lawno iFiwya |
`I
came from Hatoli’ |
| ino
lilaw śwe |
`I
went to her’ |
| ino
as
tipaw kdawś |
`I
went to that tree’ |
| anuye
akģlo wśe |
`the
child went to the house’ |
| anuye
akģlo anģ |
`the
child is in the house’ |
|
|
| (ii)
At the syntagmatic level, the same group takes the adjectives/kicmi/
`old’ and/ kuFrunu/ `little’ as in : |
| kicmi
tim* |
`old
man’ |
| anu
kuFunu |
`small/little
child’ etc. |
|
|
|
The differences found in between the two sets of nouns may be tabulated
as under : |
| |
|
|
Group
1 |
Group
2 |
| (i) |
Postposition
: |
|
|
|
| |
lawno |
`from’ |
lono |
lawno |
| |
law |
`to/towards’ |
lo |
law/kidaw |
| |
lo |
`in’ |
lo |
.. |
| (ii) |
Adjectives
: |
|
|
|
| |
`old’ |
akaw |
|
kicmi |
| |
`little/some’ |
|
aFolo/kötla |
ku*unu |
|
|
| Incidentally,
if the nouns occurring in the two groups are compared, it could be
observed that all the nouns taking postpositions in group 1, refer
to inanimate beings and the nouns occurring in group 2 refer to animate
beings, and that the nouns referring to the animate beings include
trees and plants. These two groups of nouns are formally designated
respectively as Nouns inanimate being class (abbreviated Nina class
of nouns) and Nouns animated being class (abbreviated Nani class of
nouns). |
| The
Nina class of nouns is formally defined as that sub-group of nouns
which take the allomorphs of the postpositions/lono-lo-low/ meaning
respectively `from-towards-in’ and the adjectives/aF olo- kö-tla/and/akaw/
meaning respectively ‘some-little’ and ‘old’. |
| Nani
class of nouns |
| On
the basis of certain shared features, the Nani class of nouns in their
turn can be further sub-grouped. For instances, a sub-class of Nani
class of nouns show the following features: |
| (i)
When the determined noun (i.e. the possessed item) is a member of
Nina class of nouns, and the determiner (i.e) |
